Research File 3.0 by Otávio Neves

Kaare Andrews

otavio_neves — 2018-04-09 02:09:39 UTC

Kaare Andrews, work in Iron Fist: Living Weapon. He uses very rough and very strong lines to form beautiful and imnpactful artwork that adds pain and strenght to each scene. He also has a very interesting work with color, limiting himself to an especific color palette for each page. That gives each scene a sense of intensity and passion, even quiet moments like Iron Fist talking with his wife.

Amazing reference when thinking about how my shader will look like in the game. Using a more photorealistic version of the usual toon shader and going beyound the limits of the black outline.

Kaare Andrews - Wikipedia (2018) Kaare Andrews - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaare_Andrews. [Accessed 17 November 2018].

Sou Fujimoto at Japan House

otavio_neves — 2018-04-19 01:41:16 UTC

Sou Fujimoto exhibition and her work was stunning. Most surprising part was how she combined scale and material to give meaning to her work. I also felt that the small human models gave the sense that this weirdly shaped structures could be actual building, which I personally think was the intention since she constantly mentioned architecture.

The Wolf

otavio_neves — 2018-04-27 01:35:51 UTC

A more traditional interpretation of sound, the famous "music video", however this one doesn't simply illustrate the song, in fact, the only lyrics similarities that it has is the presence of the titular "wolf". This music video translate the fast beat as a constant chase and the constant repetition of instruments in quick sucession is shown in the form of the constant shif from black to white. It's most impressive aspect though is the climax right before the final chorus, this part is, in musical terms, distinct from the rest of the song and presents a structure that isnt repeated anywhere else in the song, this is visualized through the uncanny use of hot colors instead of the usual black and white from the rest of the clip.

YouTube (2018) SIAMÃ�S - "The Wolf" [Official Animated Music Video] - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX44CAz-JhU. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

Centro Cultural São Paulo expo

otavio_neves — 2018-05-03 04:27:12 UTC

One of the exhibitions presented in Centro Cultural São Paulo was one dedicated to the "Tropicalia" movement. The exposition consisted of a dark room with many projections through the wall and even one in the floor. These projections would present imagery associated with this era and at a similar beat to the music. What intrigued me the most wasnt the actual content of the video, there was some cool imagery, but the presentation itself was stunning. Images would cross from a wall to the other and from that wall to the floor, as a spectator it was engaging, I would have to move and turn in order to keep and and to see the full scope of the project. There was simply no point of view where you could see the whole thing at once, it fully utilised the size of the room. This is a reminder to always think of the space as a part of you piece, use that space, make it your own and stretch it's uses in order to enhance the presentation and, if possible, the meaning of the work.

QR Code Trademark

otavio_neves — 2018-05-05 18:57:29 UTC

The use of QR code technology is surprisingly flexible, requiring no fee or contract in it's use for either personal or commercial purpose. The only restriction is that the word itself "QR Code" is trademarked, so the trademark must be clear in any product that includes the word especifically. This does not include a QR Code itself, since there is no legal attachment with the technology itself. This will be very helpful with my possible project in Part 3 since it require less legal research than if the technology was trademarked.

Experiements with Unity Engine

otavio_neves — 2018-05-06 15:29:31 UTC

The only engine I had any knowledge in was Game Maker Engine, an engine which can only produce 2D games and it's much suitable for beginners. There were clear limitations with this engine, Job contractors arent really looking for people with experience with this engine and the limitation of only 2D games is a real gut punch. With my part 3 project I need to work with 3D models and I also want to learn an engine which is going to make my portfolio shine, Unity ended up being the solution for both problems. Unity may not be a super complex engine like Unreal 4 and Frostbyte, but it does make quite a lot of professional games, so it packs a punch in the world of game development. Furthermore it can be used for both 3D and 2D games and it's user friendly interface and expansive community make it really easy to get into.

After experiementing with it for around 4 hours I was able to grasp the nature of coding and the capabilities of the engine, the only problem I can imagine is importing 3D models, but that is more of a personal limitation other than a limitation of the engine.

Blender

otavio_neves — 2018-05-06 21:25:27 UTC

For my 3D project I will need some custom 3D models as well and a program that is compatible with Unity, Blender is really popular and, like Unity, also has a strong community online so finding resources on it was really easy. I may experiement later with Maya, since that is the competing software, but I am not sure that it is very capable in terms of modeling, since it's mostly used for animation. Blender will also take quite some time to learn, but I managed to get a hang of the UI pretty fast. The biggest problem I face with the 3D models is that the robots have very detailed parts that will take a professional level of skill to model.

After Effects workshop

otavio_neves — 2018-05-11 14:06:35 UTC

We started with a lot of basic stuff and fundamentals, that was meant to help people who are not familiar with the software, which I am. After that basic start, however, there was quite a lot of useful information during the workshop. I wasnt aware of the use of coding for after effects in order to customize effects, the language is python, which I am not familar with at all, but it is still very much useful to know. After doing a few excercises with some preset effects I started to understand the extension of this tool which I had mostly replaced by Adobe's other software, Premier, since it's easier for video editing. There was also an extremely useful demonstration of how to sync an aspect of an object to something like the beat of a song. This opens up a very easy and yet effective way of representing sound, syncing something such as the scale of the object to the intensity of an especific audio track.

Unity Game Design Course

otavio_neves — 2018-05-13 22:14:44 UTC

Since my part in the Sound and Vision project is nearly finished I decided to use the extra time to develop my Unity skill with this game design course in Udemy. I have used this site before to develop my character drawing skill and it was quite helpful and this course in especific was listed as a best seller in the plataform. From what I have learned from the first
unit is very basic interface development skill, but looking through later modules shows how deep the course goes in terms of exploring the Unity engine.

BIG Festival

otavio_neves — 2018-05-15 14:19:22 UTC

This is a festival of independent video game publishers where anyone can expose their games and maybe get some funding. Even though I wont be able to publish my a game in time I am indeed interested in both seeing the games produced as well as seeing the interviews with developers and possibly building my network with people inside the industry.

BIG Festival (2018) Home - BIG Festival. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bigfestival.com.br/home.html. [Accessed 18 November 2018].

Conway's Game of Life

otavio_neves — 2018-05-15 17:56:27 UTC

This "game" develop by John Conway consists of a very simple program with a few rules of how pixels will interact when near each other. With just these simple rules user's across the world were able to create complex systems and simulations that can replicate things like a working digital clock, for example, or a recreation of a scene from Star Wars. The idea of using simple and open rules so the user is encouraged to expriement since he knows that the only limitations are his imagination and skill is inspiring and is a design mentality that is in heavy need in this age of heavy storytelling games that relly on structures used in books and movies to tell stories and dont fully utilize the possibility of the gaming environment.

YouTube. 2018. epic conway's game of life - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2vgICfQawE. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

UI and UX Design

otavio_neves — 2018-05-18 14:00:53 UTC

This video analyses the UI design choices from the game Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and explain why it can be considered a design failure. This in depth analysis of something that most players wont even notice fascinates me since, as the video says, "Good design is always invisible" and being able to tell stories and enrich an experience through composition as well as UI design is an area that I definitely want to study more in order to undestand communication through visuals.

YouTube (2018) Xenoblade 2: Good Game, Bad Design Choices - (Sol) - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEHE-WVrdHc. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

C# Lessons

otavio_neves — 2018-05-24 15:04:54 UTC

In order to learn C# you must first learn C. C has many libraries and which library is determined by the command _using_.

Commands can be broken down into functions
Variables- First you decide wich type of variable it is going to be, like int, double, float, bolean
eg int Chocolate = 3
char - characters like "a" 'b"

Arrays= Arrays represent not just one element, but many elements.
eg: Chocolate [2] = {1,2};

An arrays of characters becomes a string unless finished with /0
eg: "Chocolate/0";

If I try to create a fraction while declaring an integer it will default to an integer.

Operation:
+
-
*
/
&(Bit to bit, eg: 1011 and 0001 would be equal to one, while 1011 and 0010 would be false[this is useles])
&&(compares to see if it is false or true)
|| (is used for "or" statements)
if{} else{}
switch(chocolate){ case 1: }
{} represents a command block if you want to break a command block you use "break;"
for(x;y;z;){w}
Explanation: X is the first thing command, if Y is true it will loop and z is done after every loop. Make sure your for has a way out
eg: for(i = 0;i < 23;i++)
{do pie pls;}
while(chocolate = 3){}
Explanation: while the statement is truye while will keep looping you can also put a break condition to break the infinite loop
eg: while(true){if do this break;}

FUNCTIONS
A function is an operation outside of my code. Can be useful to make changes to variable depending on other variable. It is declared similarly to a variable
eg: int chocolate(int something)

STRUCT:
Structs is a customizable group of variables, int var would say a var in that belong to the int group, after a struct you could make a new group which pertains certain variables.
struct ficha_de_aluno
{
char nome[50]; obs: numero de caracteres entre as []
char disciplina[30];
float nota_prova1;
float nota_prova2;
};

eg:
struct
{
;
}
struct ;

main() is ALWAYS executable first,

CLASSES
A class is a struct of an object with declared properties that we are going to operate . A class is the definition of C#, you cant have a script without a class.

Adriano Costa

otavio_neves — 2018-06-05 13:40:10 UTC

Adriano's work is mostly composed of sculptures made out of old materials often found in the garbage or the streets and thus it has a very rustic feeling to it. The message of each sculpture has a critical feeling to it, every sculpture has a message or a political commentary to it. Every sculpture also tells a story through the composition, materials and the space itself, this shows a level of awereness of every possible aspect in a piece. The use of reused objects also a wish to explore the boundries of each object, that it is not because an object has been developed that it means it cant be used anymore.

Guggenheim (2018) Adriano Costa. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.guggenheim.org/map-artist/adriano-costa. [Accessed 17 November 2018].

Turbosquid

otavio_neves — 2018-06-08 02:10:44 UTC

Turbosquid offers models of varying qualities for a variety of prices, if worst came to worst I could rely on a hand model to use a guide or reference, though I would rather not to due to it costing money and, more importantly, due to it leading me to immitating someone`s work instead of developing my own skills.

TurboSquid. 2018. 3D Models for Professionals :: TurboSquid. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.turbosquid.com/. [Accessed 18 November 2018].

Maya workshop

otavio_neves — 2018-06-11 03:58:31 UTC

With the Maya workshop I was finally able to start production for the 3D animation. Since I was getting used to a new software I decided to keep it very simple and stick with the idea of the flaming fist. The steps needed to complete it is model the fist itself, texturize it, add proper lighting and lastly add the flames in post in a software like nuke or after effects. The first part and the one I am going to need Maya the most is the modeling part, I have to model a fist, but since it will stand still through the whole animation then there is no need to develop a rig to it or worry about the movement of the model, I just need to produce a single solid geometric shape. Since a hand is still a very complex object I will need a couple of reference pictures of my hand in a fist motion from various different angles. As for texture, I was aiming for either a latex or wool texture, though I do need to do more research on it in terms of lighting as well as disponibility, I am leaning more towards latex due to it feeling more aerodynamic and giving a better sense of heroism as well as movement, but I am unsure how reflective it will be and wool might be a better choice, but it does have a fairly more complicated pattern to the texture. As for the flames that will be added in post I am fairly sure that there is a preset on after effects, but I am tempted to use either nuke or hudine instead due to it being a good chance to learn this softwares which would be a huge boon to my portfolio and skillset since they are industry standarts.

Photogrammetry Workshop

otavio_neves — 2018-06-11 05:49:25 UTC

Photogrametry is technique which uses software to analyse hundreds of images and use them to reconstruct a 3D model of a certain object and it can do that with an uncanny degree of accuracy to the point that the lighting and texture will be done for you. This tecnique can cut down hours upon hours to just a couple at most and most of the time will be dedicated to just waiting for the computer to process the images. Photogrammetry does have some limitations, most related to the object that is molded itself, since object without many details that the software can track and use as reference will lead to a lower quality object model. Aside from that there are the pictures themselves as you could just take the with your phone, but the result would be very underwhelming compared to if you used a raw formate from a quality camera, this does, however, make so the transitions and processing periods take even longer to complete.

Nuke Workshop

otavio_neves — 2018-06-28 14:06:16 UTC

Nuke is a compositing and color grading software for VFX and mostly used for films and, sometimes, games. It's industry approved so it is in almost every blockbuster movie. Flame is another option for VFX, but Nuke is a more open software in terms of starting and finishing all of it in the same software. It's a node based software so it doesnt use timeline like adobe software.

One feature is a 3D camera tracker that can used for analysing 2D sequence of images into a tracking shot. Though it can use particles, it is better to use Houdiny for it. It has a powerful tool for reducing noise, so it is good for quick fixes.

Impressively, there is a 3D modeling software inside it , so there is no need to import Maya models mid project, though I dont know how good their modeling software is. There is also a match grading plug in that doesnt reduce much of the quality.

Quick note: RenderMan, plug in for Nuke and Maya used by pixar for rendering. It is FREE, so download it. DaVinci Resolve is free up to 1080p, so try and fix that. Also try and replace Photoshop with Mischief. Natron, a community driven OpenSource software for compositing.

Node based system is easier to work with since it has a more specific problem finding flow, you have a problem with a node, ou can just fix that specific node and dont affect the rest of it. Along with that, because nodes save your setting independently it is very hard for you to lose any work, even you lose the footage.

With a stereoscopic workflow you can easily translate 2D to 3D with high quality and little time lag. Furthermore it supports OBJ, Alchemix.

Unfortunatly, the language that nuke uses is Phython API and PySide. It's a really powerful tool if you know how to program it and fully utilize the scripts, but you can still do so much without ever touching it.

Quick Note: Prep - On set there are usually yellow markers on the green screen for tracking, so to remove them afterwards you have to use prep through a 2D tracker. Basically just getting rid of noise.

In the modeling side, there are relighting nodes that allow you to plan the lighting of your models inside the software itself.

There are also amazing color wheel for color control and it's also really easy to use due to things like nukepedia and In-context help.

----------------------------------

Read = Import
Write = Render
Checkerboard = Background
Clicking tab creates a Node.

The simple ~keyer~ from the Keyer category is usually the most effective one, though there are different options for different situations.
In order to get more viewers you need a new viewer node.
Merge node allows for blending in two elements, so with a green screened footage you would have to first key out the green and then use the merge node to merge the background with what`s left from the keyed footage.
Primatte works but it is not the best nodes. Just one node will always be limited, you need to have multiple keying nodes for a decent footage. Along with multiple keying nodes you also need to correct the color with Grading nodes such as ~grade~.
In order to do prep, aka removing markers and noise in genreal, you use a 2D tracker. You add a track and point it at what you want to be removed, the smaller box should contain the entire object and the bigger box is for reference. If there isnt much movement you dont need the tracker, but in most cases you need it. Afterwars you select the tools for the nodes and surround the noise and then use a transform node to replace the unwanted area with a more desirable green. When working with merges, B always goes up and A goes to the sides. After overlaying the footage you have to get a grade node and use it to correct the green to match the footage better. One easy way is changing channel by channel until the selected spot becomes invisible. Since you usually have many markers you can just copy the node and apply it on different spots.

In the ~Global~ arrow, switch to input so you will only see the frames that have footage. Because of interactive light in nuke you dont have to rerender something in case you need to change the lighting.

When overlaying a model over a real picture you have to think about the environment and the reflection.

BIG - Kevin Lecture

otavio_neves — 2018-07-03 23:44:09 UTC

Brazil's role in development of AAA games: history context and
-In Brazil the mobile gaming market has recently overtaken automobiles and will soon overtake pc and consoles. While US spends around 23 billion dollars in gaming development, brazil only develops around 1 billion. Still, Brazil is the 13th biggest gaming market in the world. Brazil started out only making clone games and clone consoles, at the 2000s we started a huge piracy movement because of the huge tax imports and a huge mod community. Still, this pirate wave somehow resulted in a ton of companies and a flourishing gaming market. This is due to changes like Microsoft and Sony starting to be officially released here.
The term AAA was coined by the gaming market itself in the 90s to declare standarts in terms of polish, revenue and investments for big companies, not necessarily quality. In terms of indie vs AAA, indie titles have small budget, made by smaller teams, very pick and and play, cheap prices, while AAA games have vast budgets, by big teams and made to be very high quality.
Can we make AAA gamed?
Production staff: A aaa game requires upwards of 600 people working including directors and specialist roles.
Investment: over 100 million dollars and uptowards to 500 million dollars, same numbers to hollywood productions. However there is certainly possibility to fail, this is a risky bussiness, but it is sustainable.

Narratives in gaming

otavio_neves — 2018-07-03 23:46:41 UTC

This was the notes I took during the presentation of a game storyteller during BIG Festival.

When you are planning the narrative of the game you need to have a mission and understand the conventions that are already set in place in a franchise or in a narrative that already has concepts.

Step 1:
Always start small, the premise must be short and concise.

Step 2:
Create a basic 3 act story, but keep in mind gameplay, domt drag too much on the 1st act as players want to jump into the gameplay head on. The second act will be the hugest part of the game, it is the entire gameplay and the third act is the final level, a conclusion.

Character Inventory:

Bowser is something that is tied to the gameplay, it is dictated by it and is essencial, while Peach is just an assistent to the plot, she could as well be a sandwhich.

Adding depth:

If you have a rich character with layers, likes and dislikes then the character will write itself because you know what they like.

Flawed characters are more interesting and engaging and do mot be afraid to use stereotype. Dont stick to just the stereotypes, however, they make the character easy to get, but they need some twists for them to be unique. Dont twist the characters too much as they will be too complicated to understand. An easy way to understand and lazy character us the "avatar animal character"

Main Character:

"The name is important" it need to fit the character and shouldnt be taken likely. Make them relatable, the audience needs to understand their problems and above any other character he needs to be consistent. A player wont invest on an inconsistant character. Also the character needs positive traits, there isnt much need for a hero per say, but there needs to be a motive for us to be playing this character.

Phasing Helper Tool:

There are conventional spot for the story to unveil, the story should be some kind of reward, make it a treat for the player. Dont, ever, make it a chore.

The Result:

The characters will be able to talk by themselves if they are well devloped conceptually wise.

Problem you may have while writing:

Dont stop writing! Write anything, correct/delete later, just dont stop.

If you dont know if your script is bad, show them to people to dont love. Dont be afraid to show people your ideas, no one will try to steal them.

Your Script is Boring:

Beware of direct exposition
Beware of the bland character
Beware the Gary Stu

Graphics can tell much more then a lot of words, remember that they exist when writing.

Common Narrative Mistakes:

Do not annoy the player with the story, it is a treat, not a burden.

Walls of text are the kiss of death.

Dont take control of the player too often

Gameplay over cutscenes all the times

Vile fight

The player needs to have agency in fights, there always needs to be a drive to win.

Dont forget, EVERYTHING IS NARRATIVE. Art, UI, Music, FX, Voice Acting, Animations.

Talk with CDProjektRed Animator

otavio_neves — 2018-07-04 04:46:15 UTC

Today we had a very special oportunity to talk with a member of the renowed video game studio CDProjektRed about his experiences getting his job and then working with a AAA company. This was an important time to do some primary research ask questions that are relevant and specific to me and my experiences, it also helps that I want to follow in a very similar career path, though not as an animator, but as a designer. The first thing that everyone was curious about was how was he able to get the job or even apply to it and the answer was simpler than most of us imagined, rather than having a complex interviewing process with portfolio, essay, presentation and whatever, he simply applied to the job at their website with a showreel of his work on vimeo, simple and clear, he then went further on how the presentation of the work itself doesnt actually matter that much as they are concerned about what you make, not about how you show it. Furthermore, his whole experience working in a AAA studio is much mroe involved then we are lead to think, usually we see big studios as fordistic industries where the worker feels isolated from the other steps of creating the product and from the product itself by consequence. That, however, though true for some, isnt a consequence of the AAA workspace as it is the kind of job that rewards curiosity and workers tht actively try to understand and work together with other parts of the team in order to better improve themselves and the product, so someone like me who had admiration for all the steps of the creative process will still fill fulfilled even in that work environment.

Toon Shader Test in Unity

otavio_neves — 2018-07-29 21:45:15 UTC

Dogs can fly

otavio_neves — 2018-08-03 02:11:37 UTC

The company started by focusing on licensing, which is usually the most costly part of the animation process. It focuses on work for hire for advertising products as well as entretainement in the for of ficional and factual narratives. The Animation and VFX isnt a big focus but there are some very competent employes that are leading vr tehnology.
Every day movies and videos are becoming more and more reliant on animation and post production in order to create the scenes and effects that we desire. Because post production and animation share the same techniques they also share similar resources, making these two areas intertwined. Before then, understanding software was a huge selling point for industry, but nowadays there is a much more even focus between software knowledge and arts fundamentals.

When analysing a portfolio there is a focus in analysing the workflow of the animation process. Are you sure you want to work with this? You will work easily 15 hours a day. There needs to be an understandement of this stressful workflow. There needs to be an understandment that when working in a group or to a company you dont fully own that work, it is not just your work. Learn how to say no to impossible or shady projects, when a job is impossible then no ammount of money should overturn your decision. In the art industry what speaks the loudest is ultimately your work, not your graduation, not your teachers, just your work.

When creating stories it is important to be constantly be reading, day and night, reading is the fundamental part of storytelling. There is also a need to place yourself in the work, not your story, but your feelings and your beliefs, dont betray yourself in your work and dont try to talk about something when you have nothing to say about that. References should always be important for you, if it is important just because it is like something else than it is an objectively inferior product.

PLAY VIDEOGAMES!!!!!@

Consume your media in every sense of it, dont let your pride get in the way.

M. C. Escher

otavio_neves — 2018-08-06 01:34:36 UTC

A more mathematical take on surreal and mind challenging environments that can take quite the time to fully understand.

His works are like visual puzzles, creating environments that makes us pause and truly think about what we are thinking.

Since I am working with something more concrete it may not help me at my current state, but if I want a set piece that will truly shock the viewer than he can be a good source of reference.

M. C. Escher - Wikipedia (2018) M. C. Escher - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

Saul Steinberg

otavio_neves — 2018-08-06 01:38:01 UTC

Saul Steinberg has built quite the portfolio of urban line art that combines realism and cartoonish artstyle in an uncanny, but very interesting visual language.

The line art has a messy feel that translates the urban lifestyle perfectly, it also uses broad strokes to create the sense of overwhelming density of the city.

I am still trying to implement his drawings as a reference for sketching as it can make a scenario look even messier and full of information.

Saul Steinberg - Wikipedia (2018) Saul Steinberg - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Steinberg. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

Unreal Engine Workshop

otavio_neves — 2018-08-07 13:21:48 UTC

Unreal is an Engine that can be fully operated without coding, though it can be enhanced with so.

There is a difference between material and textures. A material is composed of many textures while a texture is a simple 2D image.

Modelling in unreal is much more limited in terms of polygon count, it is a finalizing tool, only to be used after you have all the assets.

Blueprints are the nodal language code for Unreal Engine. They use a much simpler and easy to understand language that isnt tied to any programming conventions

Unreal Channel

otavio_neves — 2018-08-07 13:47:07 UTC

I have a ton of tutorial from the official Unreal Channel here, it is the best source of information about the engine and there is still a lot more that I can uncover from exploring their channel.

YouTube (2018) UnrealEngine - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/user/UnrealDevelopmentKit. [Accessed 18 November 2018].

Making clouds in Houdine for Unreal

otavio_neves — 2018-08-08 20:44:26 UTC

This quick tutorial shows the power of the Houdini software for creating gaming landscapes. In a little over 30 minutes he was able to create a professional level cloudscape that is high poly and rigged as well as fully functional in Unreal Engine 4. This, however is only due to the person's extensive knowledge in the software as a newcomer would struggle to even manage the simplest things when walking through the software without a guide. It truly is a valuable resource to learn, but not one that I can use for this project.

Vimeo (2018) Cloudscape! // Houdini for Games on Vimeo. [ONLINE] Available at: https://vimeo.com/216915018. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Quixel - Asset store

otavio_neves — 2018-08-10 15:01:50 UTC

Quixel is an online resource that offers free high quality resources for aspiring game designers. One really good feature is the ability to integrate the assets into a number of softwares including Unreal Engine with a push of a button,. It was an invaluable resource for building the environments as many of those models I took from here.

Quixel Megascans (2018) Quixel Megascans. [ONLINE] Available at: https://megascans.se/. [Accessed 18 November 2018].

Poliigon - Textures for Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and Blender

otavio_neves — 2018-08-16 17:42:41 UTC

This community based site allows for 3D artists to share their projects and works through a moderate fee, it is an amazing resource to learn the industry standard and the professional pipeline for 3D modelling texture and animation.

Poliigon (2018) Poliigon. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.poliigon.com/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Grant Shonkwiler

otavio_neves — 2018-08-24 15:00:29 UTC

It is important to identify trends in order to get success in your career. Always walk with people that are smarter than you, you must be a sponge of knowledge and just learn from people around you. Have connections with other people in industry, this contacts are a gateway to easy pitches and job opportunities. Remember to diversify your platform, social games banked a lot on platforms like Facebook and when they couldn't monetize them anymore the trend just died. Use analytics in order to predict trends and identify patters so you can solve problems. Sometimes players feedback isn't enough to identify what is wrong with a certain game, always remember to look at the data. Go make friends! Friends are a powerful resource in the industry, not just on an industry basis, but in a social one as well. Remember to distinct Risk from "Putting yourself out there" the ladder will just get you rejected at worst, but a risk can make you lose your job. Risk must be accompanied by study and data, make them be planned risks and not wild guesses.

South Park Early Animation

otavio_neves — 2018-08-24 15:08:51 UTC

South Park is probably the most wide know reference of a cartoon that employs stop motion visuals. Even though they started as traditionally made stop motion they now use 3D software which makes the animation production faster as well as smoother.

Looking at the early episodes of South Park there is an uncanny charm about the roughness of the animation and how rash eah move was made, this usual defect gives the cartoon a lot of charm and character

Character Creation Tutorials

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:08:54 UTC

In techinical terms these are great examples for my project since they show a clean UI that offers a wide range of customization without cluttering the screen. In terms of content it is also very impressive as it interpolates in between the setting to create a scale for each setting.

There is, however, the limitation of it being organic models, which do not suit my mechanical project. One such limitation is the aspect that most of the settings involves skin stretching which is not present at all with robots.

CB-Productions (2017) [UE4] Character Creator - Create custom character in Unreal Engine 4. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYun-QhaaoI. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:09:05 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

Reuben Ward (2017) Unreal Engine Tutorial - Character Creator. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIpFqqkrNwY. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:09:17 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

PyroDev (2017) Unreal Engine 4 - Character Customization. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAE8lAACgH4. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:09:26 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

Reallusion (2017) 01 Character Creator: Building Characters for Unreal UE4. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oSYbIyeCCM. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

Gundam Breaker

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:09:51 UTC

Incredibly robust customization system, not as robust as MASS Builder, but still a creative standart for Gundam games and Character Creation System. Though this system is less about the cosmetics and more about functionality in game, something that I am trying to avoid.

Crafts & Meister 2017, Gundam Breaker 3, video game, Playstation 4, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., Japan

M.A.S.S Builder

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:19:38 UTC

The top and best character creation system in my entire research. The focus in action is very minimal, the real star of the game is the variety in customization options, allowing for re-scaling on to of part swapping, something you dont see a lot with robot customization systems.I go more in depth about what set this game apart in my Interview with Vermilion Digital in the "Artists" Column.

Vermillion Digital 2018, M.A.S.S. Builder, video game, Microsoft Windows, Vermillion Digital, Thailand.

Autodesk Gameware

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:21:55 UTC

After playing a couple games I noticed a lot of them were powered by Autodesk's line of game related software such as Stingray, Scaleform and Navigation. Even though those softwares are meant for a professional studio and may not be easily acessed, but it is still worth looking into as these tools could improve my project drastically should I be able to implement them.

Autodesk (2017) WELCOME TO THE AUTODESK GAMEDEV CENTER. [ONLINE] Available at: https://gamedev.autodesk.com/. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

DAEMON X MACHINA

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:42:37 UTC

Very recent reference as the game is still in development

Nintendo. (2018). DAEMON X MACHINA Gameplay - Nintendo Treehouse: Live | E3 2018. [Online Video]. 14 June 2018. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJdWDuYRl50. [Accessed: 13 September 2018].

Dual Gear

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 19:58:38 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

YouTube (2018) Dual Gear [PS4/XOne/PC] Mech Customization Trailer #02 - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdFE3kDLFHI. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Shoji Kawamori

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 20:02:59 UTC

Famous mechanic artist that created the Mecha franchise Macross, his style went to be a big influence in the mecha genre as a whole being responsible for one of the most famous robots of all time, Optimus Prime.

His most recent work is on the to be released game Deamon X Machina for the Nintendo Switch. His style on that game is what I mostly using as inspiration since he employs asymetry into his design and really pushes the humanoid aspects of robots to a limit, making them look more like monster or, in this case, demons.

Wikipedia (2018) Shōji Kawamori. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dji_Kawamori. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 20:12:27 UTC

The Old Reader (2015) 27 May 12:18 "Sunflowers of Inferno" Becomes Top-Grossing "Detective Conan" Film. [ONLINE] Available at: https://theoldreader.com/profile/8cb7d40d5e57aaa2f7ff06f3?page=53. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

Mass Effect Andromeda

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 22:02:11 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

Mass Effect: Andromeda - Wikipedia (2018) Mass Effect: Andromeda - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect:_Andromeda. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Recolor.me

otavio_neves — 2018-09-09 22:23:19 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

recolor.me. (2018) recolor.me. [ONLINE] Available at: https://recolor.me/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Vermillion Digital Interview - Primary Research

otavio_neves — 2018-09-10 21:04:54 UTC

This was an interview that I made with the game development company Vermilion Digital. There I asked how did they approach the customization system as well as details on how they manage game production in general.

"Well hello again! Sorry for the late replies, I was trying to get our director to speak up his thought processes why we scour our design documents.

To answer your questions, let us explain on how we do things here in Vermillion.

Whenever there's some new ideas, even while working on something else, anyone that has the idea is free to call a meeting with everyone to explain what their ideas are. In this case as the origin of M.A.S.S. Builder, it was while we were working on another project to fund ourselves. We were very invested into Gunpla at the time and customizing (painting, kit bashing, etc.) was one of the highest priorities on our list. Our director then said that he's been secretly working on a program that would customize things, mechas and parts he'd like onto a frame and would like to expand on the idea. We all like that, so everyone pooled in and our game designer (whom we used as a secretary) started creating design documents of features and everything and so sat down a few weeks later to scourge through the document, ending with 2 core features, Customization and Battle.

That's the gist of it, to summarize, we'd speak up of an idea in our extremely horizontal level office where the director has a role of setting a final choice but everyone had a say in designs. The document is then cemented and put into a place where everyone can look at and read, and follow what to do for each part of the team.

To specifically look into what we went through in customization systems, we'd all pool our collection of gunplas, frame-arms, etc. and take them apart, rebuilding them, look at each core parts, start looking through them on where parts could be stick to and check everyone's thoughts and desires on how we'd like to customize these toys we have.

That came out to be 38 pieces, and since some of us like larger scales, some smaller, some long, and some shorter parts so we came up with the idea of individually scaling as well as a whole scaling process (where you'll see in our demo, and more in the new one that's coming out).

We also thought that aesthethics shouldn't limit someone's desire for how things would play out, so we designed a system that could support those ideas with another layer of equipment that affects statistics underneath the armors that does not.

Main priority on these systems is that we let our director (who's a good artist as well) design his ideas and breaking it down into pieces for our 3d artist. They both had really long nights of breaking things down digitally from a whole piece and both did their job really well, creating each part of the asset and programming the attachment into the areas of each of the 38 point of the body.

Optimization became less and less or a priority as we would need to see if things would work well on the most basic work, and when it does, we had the 3d artist start designing what he liked alongside a set of themes that we gave him. Things like "we'd make a strong big tough guy" or "we need a large backpack to hold all the weapons"

Something strange for us is that we don't value meetings that much, we'd think it wastes too much of everyone's time so we stick to just planting in suggestions and shouting across the room, using our "off-time" to do some more work we'd like to do such as drawing up a design.

Also to add in, our team consists of a 3D artist that does modeling, rigging, animation, everything from scratch, 1 2D artist that works on marketing materials and texturing to help the 3D, and our director is someone that can prepare some small assets and texture redrawing for our 3D artist as well and they all cycle works in a seemless loop in the first place when large amount of assets are needed. For small assets, the fastest way is to buy them off the marketplace and redrawing some textures to fit our game as well"

Battletech

otavio_neves — 2018-09-11 02:59:09 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

BATTLETECH - Tactical 'Mech Combat. Available Now on Steam, GoG & Humble! (2018) BATTLETECH - Tactical 'Mech Combat. Available Now on Steam, GoG & Humble!. [ONLINE] Available at: http://harebrained-schemes.com/battletech/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Making your First Game

otavio_neves — 2018-09-11 17:18:29 UTC

In this series they explore the development problems that come when making your first gaming project.

One point they hammer down really hard is scope as a lot of people want to replicate the kinds of games they play and, therefore, are thinking of games on a huge scope when usually you wont have the time, skill and resources to make even a small piece of this huge games. One term that they present in another video is the idea of a minimum viable product, that is, what is the least that you need to make in order for your game to be fun, as long as you have that you can go onto user testing and correct some fundamental flaws that your game might have.

Extra Credits (2014) Making Your First Game: Basics - How To Start Your Game Development - Extra Credits. [Online Video]. 14 January 2015. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z06QR-tz1_o. [Accessed: 11 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-11 17:22:37 UTC

Extra Credits (2015) Making Your First Game: Minimum Viable Product - Scope Small, Start Right - Extra Credits. [Online Video]. 28 January 2015. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvCri1tqIxQ. [Accessed: 11 September 2018].

Myers Briggs for Character Creation

otavio_neves — 2018-09-11 17:22:45 UTC

In this other short video essey they explore the psychological test called Myers Briggs and how you can use that to enhance your characters throughout your narratives. This test essentially tells you how does this character react to the world, so he can be an extrovert or an introvert, a sentimental or a judgemental, this will help write characters more naturally and make them feel like people rather than just a plot tool.

Extra Credits (2013) Myers Briggs and Character Creation - Psychology in Game Design - Extra Credits. [Online Video]. 5 September 2013. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKnNO5pxRGQ. [Accessed: 11 September 2018].

Enclothed Cognition

otavio_neves — 2018-09-11 17:22:53 UTC

Enclothed cognition is the term used to describe the influence of clothing and posture on how we perceive people or, in the case of this video, charcters in a videogame. In the video it uses the example of a scientific experiement where people that were told to wear lab jackets performed better in tests than people that didn'n and then claimed that this was due to the people feeling smarter and, therefore, acting smarter. In the case of videogames this can be used to transmit the role or personality of certain characters, a full armored knight might have the same stats as the barely clothed villager, but you will instinctively use him more for tanking since this is what his role appears to be.

Extra Credits (2016) Enclothed Cognition - Do Character Outfits Affect Our Play? - Extra Credits. [Online Video]. 4 May 2016. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQAKOdZw7F8. [Accessed: 11 September 2018].

Week 1

otavio_neves — 2018-09-11 17:52:07 UTC

Cockpits

otavio_neves — 2018-09-12 03:54:17 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

Gundam Meisters (2013) 1/1 Scale Life-size Cockpit of the Unicorn Gundam. [ONLINE] Available at: http://gundameisters.blogspot.com/2013/07/11-scale-life-size-cockpit-of-unicorn.html. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-12 03:54:23 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

Videogamer (2015) ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos (3rd Form). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/orphans/asw-g-08-3.htm. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-12 03:54:27 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-09-12 03:54:35 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

AminoApps (2015) Gundam Barbatos. [ONLINE] Available at: https://aminoapps.com/c/gundam-amino/page/item/gundam-barbatos/vda4_eZWuWIwjgPvWzJ65LeJjBlgwqQR7kj. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-12 03:55:19 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

ArtStation (2015) Gundam cockpit. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/41yvY. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-12 03:55:27 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

Gunjap (2011) 1/35 FF-X7 Core Fighter, most important thing you need to know (Review). [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.gunjap.net/site/?p=6672. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

Dress Up Games

otavio_neves — 2018-09-12 04:24:32 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

Rinmaru Games (2016) Rinmaru Games-Pirate lolita dress up game. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.rinmarugames.com/playgame.php?game_link=pirate-lolita-dress-up-game. [Accessed 12 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-12 04:24:35 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

rockbandprincess1. (2015). Wedding Barbie Dress Up Games. [Online Video]. 31 August 2015. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wJwFJOPmNI. [Accessed: 12 September 2018].

Xenoblade Chronicles X Skells

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 01:55:01 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

Nintendo. (2015). Xenoblade Chronicles X Survival Guide: Large Skell Combat. [Online Video]. 9 November 2015. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxO6qaXUcGc. [Accessed: 12 September 2018].

Robot Wars

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 02:06:07 UTC

A weird sport to say the least, Robot Wars tries to blend in wrestling with robotics. What is interesting is that the design affects the performance so much, smaller robots are more fragile, but can avoid pinpoint weapons easier while big robots are heavily susceptible to being flipped. Furthermore, popularity is a big aspect here, if you make a robot whose design is memorable and whose way of attacking is unique than you have a big chance of coming back next season since you will be popular, so aesthetics can be part of the strategy as much as the engineering itself.

BBC (2017) Robot Wars: Episode 1 Battle Recaps 2017 - BBC Two. [Online Video]. 4 April 2017. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISp8Q3ga0F0. [Accessed: 12 September 2018].

ZakuAurelius

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 04:22:39 UTC

Toy modelling artist and 3D teacher in South Korea. His work as an influencer in the toy modelling genre is undeniable through not only his creative use of colors in models, focusing on a more subtle color scheme instead of the traditional saturated bright colors, but also due to his role as a digital influencer.

ZakuAurelius (2016) ZakuAurelius. [ONLINE] Available at: http://zakuaurelius.blogspot.com/. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Isaac Asimov Robot series

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 15:15:57 UTC

Asimov's writing laid the foundation for robot portrayal and design that we see in contemporary times. He was one of the first authors that did not looked to the future blindly, but with an air of hope and excitement and tried to construct the rules of a form of life that was almost beyond other comprehension of most. His famous 3 Laws of Robotics served as the principles for many sci fi franchises as well a point of contention in many philosophic debates about the nature of AI and what can we consider a life form.

Asimov, I. (2005) Histórias De Robôs - Volume I. Coleção L&PM Pocket: 417. 1st ed. Brasil: L&PM.

Pacific Rim

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 20:40:07 UTC

The first successful Mecha AAA franchise here in the west, Pacific Rim is a tribute to all of the tropes and cliches of the mecha shows of the east, like Gundam, Mazinger Z and Evangelion. It's especially notable for drawing inspiration from real robot shows instead of the usual super robots that we have mostly seen so far. This means that every robot has weight and punch, the robots have complicated systems that drawing the pilot, they are a necessary curse more than a savior in disguise. In terms of production they tried to make each robot unique by basing them on machinery from the real world and even though some designs end up looking goofy there are some that truly work and that added sense of realism gives life to the franchise.

Wikipedia (2018) Pacific Rim (film). [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Rim_(film). [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Rules of Play

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 20:41:49 UTC

The foreword immediatly poses a stance on game design, showing it's place as an obscure thought until the technological boom during the 70s, where, for the first time, a desire to develop a strategy or theory about game science started to grow. Yet, despite that desire, we still see mostly a presence of outside industries when it comed to game design, we rely on mathemetics, sociology, psicology and many other fields that dont have a sharp eye for designing a meaningful experience when played through.

The technological advancement, however, seems to also bring it'xs downsides since "instead of just asking what can be done with a computer we ask, 'what can be done in a 3D action game'". This comment certainly strikes close to heart as I have felt many times where the technology ruled over my creative process

Zimmerman, E. (2003) Rules of Play. 1st ed. United States of America: MIT Press.

Unreal Engine 4 for Design Visualization

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 20:48:02 UTC

This book, though very insightful, isn't very appropriate for this current project. It's vast knowledge of lighting and design are more suitable to designers working with photo realistic environments, something that is far from what I am trying to accomplish. Furthermore this isn't an introductory book, it is meant to serve people who are already very familiar with the engine and want to deepen their technical knowledge. Worth revisiting after the project.

Shannon, T. (2017) Unreal Engine 4 for Design Visualization: Developing Stunning Interactive Visualizations, Animations, and Renderings. 1st ed. United States of America: Addison-Wesley Professional.

Gundam Build Fighters AR

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 20:56:03 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

mangakakalot (2016) Gundam Build Fighters A. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mangakakalot.com/manga/gundam_build_fighters_a. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Rig it Right!

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 20:58:00 UTC

Simple and clean book on the fundamentals of rigging, I didn't read it all the way through as the starting chapters gave me enough fundamentals to explore the technique on my own.

book2look (2013) Rig it Right! Maya Animation Rigging Concepts. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.book2look.com/book/9781136146862?shopLinkNumbers=none&lang=de. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Interview with Meijin Kawaguchi

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 20:59:41 UTC

Mr. Kawaguchi is the fosterfather of the current Robot Modelling hobby, being the premier figure for the Gunpla brand. His vision of Gunpla is similar to one's like Legos, however with much more ambition, each kit needs to be as easy to understand as a jigsaw puzzle and yield the result that would WOW the person, but also leave the door open to more work. It is this impressive use of design and accessibility that makes the hobby a mainstay in the japanese environment, however overseas it simply didnt translate so well, make it look more complicated and expensive than it's competitors.

Awesome Toys (2014) Exclusive Interview with Master Kawaguchi (Part 1 of 2). [Online Video]. 17 December 2014. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6HCt6INaxE. [Accessed: 13 September 2018].

GBWC

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:01:04 UTC

GBWC is currently the top and highest standard for toy modeling of the decade, this worldwide circuit brings modelers from all over the world and is constantly evolving, putting themes and constraints in order to keep the flow of creativity always going.

YouTube (2018) Gunpla Builders World Cup (GBWC) Indonesia 2017 All Entries HD - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XGByVqfMfQatar/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Inspired 3D Modeling & Texture Mapping

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:03:19 UTC

Really old book, a lot of this information was outdated. Even in spite of that, however, it was nice studying the struggles that people faced when developing games in the last decade and served as a cautionary tale to be grateful of the current digital resources we have at our disposal.

Capizzi, T. (2002) Inspired 3D Modeling and Texture Mapping. 1st ed. United States of America: Course Technology.

Ghost in the Shell

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:11:05 UTC

Ghost in the Shell is the Godfather of real and gritty sci fi, there are few movies that rival's it's world as an introspective of how a world where humans and AI live together. It also doesn't do this under some depressive pretense like american movies such as The Terminator,it approaches the topic with enthusiasm and wonder. More than being a commentary of today's standards it tries to show the view the possibilities that the future has got in store for both us and machines alike.

Wikipedia (2018) Ghost in the Shell. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Super Dimensional Fortress Macross

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:12:18 UTC

Geth (Mass Effect)

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:13:04 UTC

The Geth may not be giant robots like the other references, however they still draw a lot of their designs from the Borg and other Science fiction cyborgs. However, unlike their predecessors, the gGeth make full use of their robotic design to explore their culture. Every design aspect is a reference to a part of their biology and nothing extra is added. One example is their lack of mouth, since they communicate at lightspeed there is no need for them to transmit sounds.
Furthermore, even the aspects that dont make logical sense have explanations, why do they have a spotlight on their head? Because there is still a part of them that wants to feel human, who wants a head.

Mass Effect Wiki(2018) Geth. [ONLINE] Available at: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Geth. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

The Transformers

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:16:55 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

Wikipedia (2018) The Transformers (TV series). [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformers_(TV_series). [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Kuratas vs Megabots

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:19:45 UTC

This event was one of the biggest milestones in the world of robotics, it was a live giant robot fight, America VS japan. This was a match that was hyped up for years, Japan's crown mecha Kuratas was challenged by the prototype American mech Megabots. This w two designs show the clear differences between america and Japanese designs, Japan is very slim with their mechs, it focus on speed and precision, something that comes from the idea of Bushido, they also value the human figure much more. The american robot puts functionalism and stats on top of any design philosophy, it is all about fire power and weight, a trait that is classic from the warrior civilization that is America.

TerminusEst13 (2017) Giant Robot Duel - MegaBot VS Kuratas [クラタス] Supercut (Fights only). [Online Video]. 17 October 2017. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTkVrRkziDI. [Accessed: 13 September 2018].

Code Geass

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:22:32 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

Wikipedia (2018) Code Geass. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Geass. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Gunpla Talk Podcast

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:23:00 UTC

This episode of Gunpla Talk groups together consome contestents from the latest GBWC to talk about how gunpla's aesthetics have changed over the year. During it there is the constant debate of detail over simplicity, detail allows you to show your technical skill while minimalism shows artistic sense and an understanding of design conventions. Furthermore there is a discussion on the structure of the robots themselves, having slimmed down and bulken up from time to time and even changed colors over the years, from more bright and saturated colors to more subtle and militaristic colors.

YouTube (2018) Gunpla Talk #33 - Evolution of Aesthetics - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E94If74hmJI. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Iron Studios

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:23:39 UTC

Studio in São Paulo that does iron sculptures for many pop culture franchises, even doing an oficial campaign with marvel for Captain America Civil War.

Iron Studios (2018) Iron Studios. [ONLINE] Available at: https://ironstudios.loja.rakuten.com.br. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Ippei Gyobu

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:24:21 UTC

Ippei Gyobu is an up and coming mechanical designer who has been getting more and more work in AAA projects as of lately. Distinctively his designs are much more alien like than the standard robots that are usually based on eltrical and industrial appliances. This results in robots that feel like they come from a mythical place, they feel interesting and like real characters, a huge step up than robots based around the mundane objects that we see in our every day, this creates no sense of wonder or mystery and does a diservice to the grandeur that these giant mechanical beasts should be causing.

twitter.com (2018) No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: https://twitter.com/ippeigyoubu?lang=en. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Fumito Ueda

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:28:52 UTC

This year at BGS there was an exclusive oportunity to see Fumito Ueda in person. He gave a lecture about the development cycle of Shadow of the Colossus and the brand new PS4 version of ICO. The reason this is different from your usual game dev is that a Fumito Ueda game is distinctively his, it takes a different stance towards storytelling in combat, the former being much more like a tool to tell the story than the attractiion itself.

Wikipedia (2018) Fumito Ueda. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fumito_Ueda. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Ex Machina

otavio_neves — 2018-09-13 21:38:24 UTC

In contrast to Charlie, Ex Machina is a much more subtle and grounded take on the life of a machine. It shows a progression as an AI who is an uncanny valley of human resemblance slowly becomes more and more human, not by "having real feelings" as we usually fantasize, but by replicating sounds and gestures that makes us humans think of that thing as human. Instead of showing that machines can evolve to have feelings just like humans it shows that humans themselves are not that much different from machines nowadays.

Ex Machina, 2015. [DVD] Alex Garland, United Kingdom: Universal Pictures.

EBAC First thursday

otavio_neves — 2018-09-14 00:47:11 UTC

- Primary Research

Alexandre Gill Branco - Digital Illustrator

Very recognized comic book artist and digital illustrator. Originally started out with analog art for advertisements and other bussinesses. After starting to understand the fundamentals of analog illustration he decided to move on to digital media before it was the main method of illustrating, many challenges came from that such as the very clumsy UI and lackluster tools, such as having to drawn using a mouse. That, however gave a clear advantage in comparison to those who started to jump in after the technique started trending. Another advantage is the faster pace of digital art was in tune to the market's increase in workload for artist as they demended quicker and better work as technologies went on. Has some really good DC artwork that empoys his oen style onto iconic characters, but also shows some architectural interest with his city landscape illustrations.

Fernanda Oliver - Concept Artist

A concept artist, like an illuatrator, is someone who likes drawings of all kind, both analogic or digital, you are going to be drawing a lot. Her work is very broad, going from a freelance artist to working in small agencies, but there was always a desire to refine the technique and a drive to create. One problem she faced was being used as simple labor workforce for bussiness and having little to no creative control on the project. After working a bit with animation and learning about storyboarding, character design and the overall animation pipeline she familiarized with the work of a concept artist and started to climb through the ranks with that. Illustration is mostly dealt with quick solutions, it has a simple problem with a simple solution and need a heavy workload. A concept artist, on the other hand is someone who generates ideas and solutions for basically any visual medium. Concept art is objectively useful, it is an idea and a tool that will serve as the base of a bigger project while an illustration is the result on itself and while it can be used in pre production it is mostly treated as it's own work. Always remeber that your work will always tend somebody else's work, it is never is a cell on it's own.

Paulo Pina - Game Artist

Has begun his work from the start of the Brazilian gaming market, so he has a very throughou knowledge of the industry. With the beginning of the internet, as slow as it is, allowed for the start of 2D animation in an easily spreadable way because of Adobe Flash. Gaming was still very small in tye country, but, with the advent of social media the rise of social games took over the country by storm and those who had experience with Flash had a huge advantage on top of the newcommers. So far there wasnt much understandment of Game Deisgn and gameplay mechanics, it was usually very unprofessional and very rudementary. One of his biggest achievements was the social game about Monica's Gang, but unfortunatly it started on the downward spiral of social games, still, it was a big achievement in the brazilian market. Lately he moved in to the mobile market with TFG and those games had unprecedented numbers and had a huge workload regardless of the simplicity of the game itself. Afyerward he moved into the company Taps and works with 3D in Unity and Maya.

Well Played 3.0

otavio_neves — 2018-09-14 02:33:33 UTC

ETC Press (2018) Well Played 3.0 — ETC Press. [ONLINE] Available at: http://press.etc.cmu.edu/index.php/product/well-played-3-0/. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

They host Well Played tracks at the "Games, Learning and Society Conference" and at IndieCade

Chapter 1- Pokemon used as a literacy tool. With over 200,000 lines of text that are interesting due to their possible application in the gameplay context. Pokemon also requires research through many mediums both in and out of play, making the player have to make a critical decision as to which information should've kept at hand. Part of why it is such a great learning tool is because it wasn't designed to be a learning tool, it was designed to be engaging and fun. In the online communities such as wikis, there is a degree of scholarship that requires sources, recordkeeping and etiquette that is not very common in regular schoolwork. The easy accessibility of cheating devices with a constant online community also makes young player tackle morality issues in the gaming world that parents don't usually understand.

2-Final Fantasy XIII was quite a controversial game due to its abandonment of the series traditional open world and adventure driven quest to a more linear and controlled environment that leaves little room for exploration. That is usually used as an argument against the game, but in this chapter, the author explores how changing a quest to a glorified obstacle course can be a nice design mentality. The first argument in favor is that by limiting the game world and encounters the devs can have a better understanding of the player's progression and can design levels and challenges accordingly. The game also uses a limited resource as a core mechanic during encounters, TP. When you find a new enemy you don't know it's strengths and weaknesses, but if you use 1 TP you can access that immediately, however, TP is also used to help injure allies and cast powerful summons, so you have to wager which of these is more crucial to your current encounter. The way the game deals with punishment is one that I value quite a lot, your punishment should be that you failed the task, if the player loses items or a significant amount of exp when losing they feel discouraged to try and experiment, the SMT games do this is an especially soul-crushing manner, the game resets when you lose so if you didn't save before the encounter you will have to play a lot of things over again. The author also acknowledges the linearity problem but puts a distinction between bad linearity and good linearity, linearity itself doesn't describe quality. One example is the Uncharted train sequence which uses a series of possible values that make it engaging and require critical decision making from the part of the player in what is, in essence, a straight line. This design intricacy isn't present in FF XIII, though, mostly because of its lackluster interactions with the environment. Probably the most brilliant realization I had while reading this chapter is how the design of the linear and open world is used alongside the story of the gods, Pulse, and Cocoon. Cocoon is an authoritarian and controlled government, this is reflected in a linear and controlled level design that leaves no room for exploration, while Pulse, which is freedom used to a fault, leaving people to fend for themselves, is represented by an expansive level design in which the player isn't given instructions or directions and every single corner could be met with adversity. This allows the players to understand the message and story without hearing a single word of dialogue or watching the numerous cutscenes. The only fault is that the boringness of the first 20 hours will create a lot of dropouts who won't experience the rest of the game and realize this design aspect.

3-I could vaguely remember a recent American McGee's Alice game and thought it was a novel 3D action platformer amongst the many that come out every year, but I didn't know that this franchise had roots in the Quake 3, making this kind of a hidden gem of the early 3D platformers. So far the chapter tries to explore the narrative of the game and how it breaks the mold of other interpretations of the classic tale. This analysis, though interesting, doesn't provide insight into the design aspects of the game itself. This story could have been told through a movie and through a book, the author has yet to point out an aspect of this journey that explores the gaming medium itself. The closest thing to it is how the slow level design and empty corridors give the player a lot of time to think about Alice and the Wonderland's current predicament.
One the best stories told through design in this game was the Cheshire Cat, which, as the book states, "was one of the most important and helpful allies to Alice in the original story, but now he has been downgraded to a near useless ally that to say meaningless tips". The only thing both incarnations of the Cat have in common is their undying grin and that is what links them both together. In the original story Alice needed a useful companion to take down the Queen of Hearts, but in the game's story she is broken and in a disordered mental state, that is why her most trustworthy ally is now nothing but a smile, because is what she needs to keep going, winning this game isn't just about beating the Queen of Hearts, it is about dealing with your inner ghouls. This is actually a really clever approach to the themes of the game that any players will notice without the game actively telling them.

Chapter 4- Limbo is a classic form the indie scene and a game whose art style I have used as a reference many times before. Nowadays it might not look particularly impressive, but its influence for its time is undeniable. Expanding on Final Fantasy's Setback Punishment mentality, Limbo punishes the player with a gruesome death that affects the player on an emotional level but not in a gameplay one. "You don't progress by dying" is the only fear you have when playing this game, it's not frustratingly discouraging that you would put the game down, but it still has the emotional weight to make you think twice before acting recklessly. This chapter isn't as much of an analysis of the game, but more of a journal about a player's experience throughout it. Probably the most impactful thing is how this short 2-hour tale felt like an Odyssey and you could feel the sense of immersion on the part of the player.

Chapter 5 - I had never heard of "The Neverhood" before reading this book and did a quick google search to see what the game was like. It is a point and clicks adventure game, a lot like clock tower and adventure island, but it is very distinct in its presentation as it employs claymation. The game's story isn't clear from the start and it is discovered by locating discs, which are mandatory, or by reading the lore written on literal walls within the game. This makes the player feel a sense of urgency and actively pay attention to the beautiful environments. It also rewards them appropriately as the information read on the walls is supplementary and cannot be found by any other means. An important design aspect is having Klayman be faced with adversity right from the getgo, that will teach players of one of Klayman's features, he cant die. No matter how bruised he gets he will always put himself together afterward, that is important in such a weird and surreal game because it helps players not be afraid of experimenting and not be afraid of clicking on a click based adventure game. The game is also aware of how to set the tone through musical queues, not just by playing different pitches and styles of song, but omitting sound on its entirety leaving just ominous silent and small sound effects to punctuate a sense of mystery and possible danger as well as loneliness.
The most important aspect of this game is how quickly it teaches you about its premise and mission and how it teaches you without a boring sense of formality, but through the player's own drive to quest and find out more. By solving the challenges themselves you learn the mechanics without a single line of dialogue and it is structured in such a manner that doesn't feel like a tutorial, but as a real challenge you need to face to progress. The extremely simple premise is also very strong and get's the player hooked immediately, collect the discs scattered throughout the world to learn the story of this place, simple enough.

Chapter 6 - Heavy Rain is very well known to be the pinnacle of a movie like games and I always had a negative perspective towards it. Part of it is the incredible arrogance of it's creator, David Cage, but it is mostly due to the fact that games are losing way too much by trying to copy other mediums, what makes games special cant be found in a movie or a stage play. One nice observation is that we cant talk about games without talking about actions. Game interactions rely on the player deciding upon an action and receiving feedback of said action (sometimes much later than the action itself). Because of that, Heavy Rain's director tried to create a huge vocabulary of actions that expanded the normal jumps, shoot and drive. This is a very interesting analysis of the structure of games, but the implementations are very lackluster, throwing a boomerang doesn't have the same impact as running from a killer and it honestly feels pointless in the grand scheme of things, even if it did affect something we run into the question of should it affect something? Having a set of rules allows the player to have a sense of mastery as he traverses obstacle courses placed by the developers and also allows creativity to use the mechanics as you see fit. One honestly very insightful decision of the developer is the use of inaction as a viable decision. In every game even if we give up or choose the passive route it is treated as an action, we must select that option and click it, but in heavy rain the quick time events which we have been trained for years to click without even thinking of the consequences can have beneficial impacts if missed, as the books say, "it challenges our understanding of game mechanics". Heavy Rain also tries to use the interface itself as a tool for storytelling to various degrees of success. One example is when the drug addict Norman Jayden is having a panic attack and feels the need ti consume more of the drug, the player is then faced with 4 very uninformative options such as tempation, drug, withdraw, etc... this is to show how difficult it is to make a decision during a panic attack and how you arent sure of the consequences of your action, but the result feels cheap as you are forced to choose something and potentially undermine hours from your campaign due to what might as well be a roll of the die, novel concept, but it is jsut that, novel. A more effective use of the ui is the action scene when the detective loses her cool and is orderd to shoot the suspect, your field of vision is clouded by multiples shoot button promts with just a few of them telling you to resist and keep your calm, this allows the player to both feel the stress in the character's head and also make an informative decision that doesnt feel cheap.

Chapter 7- The Fallout franchise is one the prestige franchises in gaming and Fallout 3 was one of the games responsible for making Bethesda a AAA studio of worldwide recognition. The game is an open world RPG that explores a post-nuclear wasteland as your character struggles to survive against a wave of animosity around you. The game's controls are fairly basic and are taught in a usual tutorial, this would normally be a very primitive thing and would create a sense of formality between the player and the game, but the controls aren't what the game isn't about and don't represent it's most important mechanic, decision making. Right after the tutorial you have to live your life as a child going through normal children business, but during the whole process you have to make decision which have immediate repercussions, this isn't told to the player, but by putting him in a controlled environment you have taught him the soul of the whole game and the player won't feel cheated when his actions are shown to have consequences. The freedom within the dialogue allows for a different player experience towards typical RPG tropes. The author tells the tale of when he needed to rescue a boy from a cult of vampires, but when given the option to talk to their leader he was fascinated and that sparked a feeling of curiosity. In most RPGs enemies serve the purpose of an obstacle that needs to be crushed, there isn't much intrigue in the player's side as to what a goblin does for a living or why does it feel compelled to attack strangers. This didn't necessarily change the outcome, a vampire is still evil and in need to be slain, but that change in the perception makes so the player thinks twice before engaging in traditionally mundane actions like combat, suddenly he is living in a real world and not going through an obstacle course.

Chapter 8 - The Uncharted franchise is famous for its tight visuals and cliché, but nonetheless well-executed story sequences. Uncharted was always a reminder that linearity can have it's values that even the act of going through a hallway can be complex and far from binary. I also need to give props to Naughty Dog's amazing animation studio, making every scene feel powerful, personal and natural. The author points out how naughty dog uses carefully crafted in-game cutscenes, scenes where the player loses control of the character, but the action uses in-game assets so it doesn't feel like a movie, to create impact and tension within the scene, but without the player knowing how automated the whole thing is. Such an example is how Nate would climb through the wreckage of a train and the whole train starts crumbling down, the player doesn't have any input during this section, but because of it last just 2 second and it is usually followed by a button prompt from a famous Quick time event it feels engaging nonetheless. From a storytelling standpoint, starting with a later scene would be a novel concept, but with Uncharted it created an instantaneous sense of curiosity and wonder about how Nate ended up in this situation, it can also be used as a means of deception making us think this is near the end of the adventure, but it is a recent event, either way, it works as a means to grab the attention of the player and make him question the scene throughout the whole experience.
The game's second chapter also displays a lot of interactions between story and gameplay. Before starting the mission Nate says that he doesn't want to kill people and doesn't want guns involved, this tells the player about Nate as a character and the nature of this mission, as it incentivizes stealth over running and gunning. The devs went so far as to show the guard that Nathan throws off the cliff to have reached water and swum to safety. This use of the beautifully crafted dialogue to teach the player of how to approach gameplay without immersion breaking tutorials is most impressive.
An impressive story moment is when Drake is separated from his friends and has to traverse some puzzles on his own. During the whole game, he always had a companion by his side giving him tips, so this acts as a sort of rite of passage as the player should be also finally starting to master the game's fundamentals and is now ready for bigger challenges. That bigger challenge comes in the form of the iconic train sequence, which is the longest combat sequence in the game and has the player having to platform while fighting and also paying attention to what is in front of him, what is to the sides, what is tot he back and the very environment itself. It is a dynamic and thrilling test of how far you have come and how capable you are with the game mechanics. After this action scene, Drake finds himself in a Tibetan village and has an opportunity to interact with some of the villagers. During this sequence, the punch button turns into an interact button which allows the player to handshake and wave at the villagers. This isn't just to prevent players from punching the villagers and breaking the immersion but to encourage experimentation and show them the possibilities when interacting with the game world. The villager that rescued you, Tenzin is made to connect with the player in a narrative and gameplay standpoint. He doesn't speak the same language as Drake so there would be a barrier in between their bonding, but since he rescued you there is a narrative sense in why you would trust him. Furthermore, he actively helps you during the mountain climbing sequence, making him connect with you in a gameplay sense. There is a reason party members feel closer than NPCs, they help you, they have gameplay purpose and as a player you don't want to pose them, the same goes for Teizen.

Chapter 9 - Mass Effect is yet another tycoon of the gaming world and one that hits close to heart since it is one of my favorite gaming franchises. The 3rd person shooter space opera RPG consists of the player character, Commander Shepard has to unite a galaxy in order to save all of intelligent life from the sinister Reapers. Mass Effect puts a twist into how we explore games, usually exploring is related to a wide open field where we can go anywhere and find enemies and treasure, but in Mass effect, exploration is done by simply being curious of your surrounding. When discovering a new culture or historic event you get access to more details in an encyclopedic menu called the codex, furthermore having knowledge of this events can help you during gameplay as certain dialogue options will appear more clear to the player and help them make an informed decision. One example is how learning about the Quarian culture can help a lost female Quarian calm down after being accused of stealing during her pilgrimage.

Chapter 11 - I have always loved fighting games and street fighter is no exception. This chapter, though, seems to be a rant about the inaccessibility of fighting and how they fail to appeal to the mass market. While there is weight to this argument, I personally am not very convinced as I have had plenty of friends that suck at these games and still enjoy a friendly match, so this complaint is only valid to competitive play and in that case the game shouldn't need to be accessible, it should be hard to master the deep mechanics and timing of a fighting game. This first complaint is actually quite valid, the main menu UI design of Street Fighter IV, and also most of the other fighting games, is extremely hard to understand for a mass market. For you to understand what Arcade mode means you would have to know the tropes from the earliest days of fighting games and "versus mode" and "training mode" aren't much help either. Smash brothers implement a much more intuitive design that a lot of fighting games could learn from, the menus show just enough information as to not confuse the player and conveys it in such a way that even a newcomer can have an idea of how to navigate through it. Going further on this subject the author explains how a newcomer would instinctively go to training mode only to be met with a confusing mode where you train yourself, another thing that the game fails to teach you. The lack of assistance at this point is enough to make a player put the game down, they are literally stuck in the sea of menus.

Chapter 12 - Zelda is one of my favorite franchises and Majora's Mask, in particular, is within the top 5 due to its open progression and just fascinating mechanic of having a constant time limit looming over you at all times, making for some really dynamic gameplay. Majora's Mask makes a statement through design in its first minutes of gameplay by making the player feel familiar with the Ocarina of Time characters and control scheme only to immediately change everything and make the player adapt to a Deku scrub link trying to find a way to get his body back. This is a clear statement that also plays with the player's emotions and immediately evokes the sense of eerieness that Majora's bathes in and all without a single word. The use of reused assets, which were a time constraint, to bump up the anxiety was a genius move on their part as the players would freak out at the mere sight at some of this characters only for them to turn out to be practically completely different people. This idea of turning constraints into creativity is very important in an industry where you are always running out of time and you can never put as much as you would want in a game. The concept of a player being an agent and not a master of the game world is very interesting indeed because it makes the player have to exercise more cognitive functions and every decision is critical due to the ever-pressing time limit. Like when you turn off the minimap the player has to pay more attention to his surroundings, the player would have to pay more attention to the characters if they dictated the pace of time. One detail I failed to catch is the importance of the youth during the whole narrative and how every single dungeon has a character involved who has to cast aside his or hers naiveness and childish innocence in order to do what needs to be done, this is also present during the final hours of the game, where the town is empty and devoid of people aside from the dutiful guards and, surprisingly, the children who wish to see the final moments through with their own eyes and refuse to abandon their home.

Chapter 13 - I had heard of the Legacy of Kain franchise quite a bit as it seemed like one of the hidden gems of the PSX and PS2 era, but I never got a chance to play them myself. One design aspect the author points out about this game is how it doesn't savor the antagonist to the very end, throughout your journey you will have many encounters with the main antagonist, Kain, and this makes the relationship between the player and the antagonist that much stronger. It's not about just saving the world and beating the game, it's about a personal quest to beat he who has gotten the upper hand on your time and time again, not unlike what Pokémon did with its rival character, Gary. An interesting mechanic is the constant health drain when Kain is the material realm, this ties both narrative and gameplay in an effective manner since we have been told how vampire has a natural thirst for blood or souls in order to keep their bodies alive, but it's only when we experience it through a gameplay mechanic that we feel the ever-present urgency that these creatures have.

Chapter 14 - Toy Soldiers is a game that has never reached me, surprisingly so since it's a tower defense game, a genre I am really fond of. The introduction that the author gives to the game hits home immediately though, the memories of fighting fearsome battles in the realm of my imagination and of any object transforming into a military resource is all too familiar for me. If the game truly captures the imagination of a child playing war then it has my immediate interest.
The game goes the full length in order to transmit the message of this being a toy version of warfare and not just another wargame. It does that through visuals, like the surrounding being a normal home while the battlefield is just a toy model, soldiers being flung around by explosions in a cartoonish style and the base that you must defend being your toybox. This small visuals and design aspects are what is going to captivate the player the most, at least that is what intrigues me the most. The war genre of games is quite the saturated one, so this childish naive sense of wonder is what is going to set this game apart and above the rest.

Chapter 15 - I did hear about Siren a bit, not too much, but the name certainly ringed a few bells. What I heard though wasn't very positive, it's is a supposed hidden gem of the horror genre that has aged quite a lot of time and probably doesn't live up to the hype nowadays. From how the author describes the game it seems that it's a mix of both stealth and horror, but it also goes in a different direction than what is commonly associated with this genre. Most impressively is how it integrates puzzles into the gameplay, unlike something like Skyrim whose puzzles might as well be a completely different game compared to the core experience. Moving a block in order for a door to open isn't very fitting of a hack and slash, but unlocking a door by, let's say, protecting a statue while hacking and slashing is much more in tune with the core game. Siren does it in a very intelligent way as well, by requiring you to learn patterns and oddities about each monster you must then apply that knowledge on the fly in order to successfully sneak through them.
The game also employs horror by transmitting a sense of shock and unfamiliarity in many levels of play. There is a thematic unfamiliarity to a western audience that doesn't understand the folklore and tropes of Shinto mythology, but that is just a layer of scare on top of a mechanical unfamiliarity in the form of the constant deviations from usual horror games tropes, such as having to carefully study and plan your actions against the monsters instead of the usual high action run/fight. There is also a level design aspect to this shock as part of the puzzle is figuring out where to go to, which on top of being chased by a zombie and having to study and plan ahead in order to avoid the creature can be quite the stressful and horrifying situation.

Chapter 16 - The Way of the Samurai series is one which I have to know, but always had marked as just a standard adventure hack and slash but in a Japanese setting. The game's structure is quite interesting for a modern game, adapting a story that truly encourages replayability, but not like Mass Effect 2 where each playthrough can go for over 20 hours. Each playthrough the game shouldn't take over 2 hours and each one of them is going to feel quite different from each other. In that sense it resembles old-school design mentality, one example is Megaman X, which at first might take 3 or 4 hours to beat, but as you play and replay you can easily get it down to under 2. This is really smart design because most people when choosing between playing a new game and replaying an old one is going to choose the former, mostly because such a huge time sink for a repeated experience doesn't sound too engaging.

Chapter 17 - Back at the realm of the indie games and, more specifically, Limbo we get a detailed analysis in terms of aesthetics, gameplay, and narrative comparing very similar, but naturally distinct games, Limbo and The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. During the visual analysis of Limbo, the author points out that to create a sense of unease the game constantly hides the character from you, making you have to guess and walk around in shadows as well as having sounds that "don't relate to any asset on screen" giving the feeling of an ever-looming danger. Limbo does suffer from a lack of direction in terms of level design, mostly in the department of obstacles that the player must overcome. These obstacles can be quite engaging like the spider, but there are more classic mechanical puzzles which don't make any thematic sense in the game. No matter what your interpretation of the game's story is, the way puzzles are implemented doesn't make sense, it's like having a Dynasty Warriors thematic game where you advance by playing Tetris, but this isn't acknowledged anywhere throughout the game. The game used in comparison also employs puzzles, but they have ludic and narrative sense, the game establishes an obstacle course to get to the pie, so you must get, but furthermore, it later reveals that by completing the puzzles you are helping the town's problems, so it feels whole and complete.They host Well Played tracks at the "Games, Learning and Society Conference" and at IndieCade

Chapter 1- Pokemon used as a literacy tool. With over 200,000 lines of text that are interesting due to their possible application in the gameplay context. Pokemon also requires research through many mediums both in and out of play, making the player have to make a critical decision as to which information should've kept at hand. Part of why it is such a great learning tool is because it wasn't designed to be a learning tool, it was designed to be engaging and fun. In the online communities such as wikis, there is a degree of scholarship that requires sources, recordkeeping and etiquette that is not very common in regular schoolwork. The easy accessibility of cheating devices with a constant online community also makes young player tackle morality issues in the gaming world that parents don't usually understand.

2-Final Fantasy XIII was quite a controversial game due to its abandonment of the series traditional open world and adventure driven quest to a more linear and controlled environment that leaves little room for exploration. That is usually used as an argument against the game, but in this chapter, the author explores how changing a quest to a glorified obstacle course can be a nice design mentality. The first argument in favor is that by limiting the game world and encounters the devs can have a better understanding of the player's progression and can design levels and challenges accordingly. The game also uses a limited resource as a core mechanic during encounters, TP. When you find a new enemy you don't know it's strengths and weaknesses, but if you use 1 TP you can access that immediately, however, TP is also used to help injure allies and cast powerful summons, so you have to wager which of these is more crucial to your current encounter. The way the game deals with punishment is one that I value quite a lot, your punishment should be that you failed the task, if the player loses items or a significant amount of exp when losing they feel discouraged to try and experiment, the SMT games do this is an especially soul-crushing manner, the game resets when you lose so if you didn't save before the encounter you will have to play a lot of things over again. The author also acknowledges the linearity problem but puts a distinction between bad linearity and good linearity, linearity itself doesn't describe quality. One example is the Uncharted train sequence which uses a series of possible values that make it engaging and require critical decision making from the part of the player in what is, in essence, a straight line. This design intricacy isn't present in FF XIII, though, mostly because of its lackluster interactions with the environment. Probably the most brilliant realization I had while reading this chapter is how the design of the linear and open world is used alongside the story of the gods, Pulse, and Cocoon. Cocoon is an authoritarian and controlled government, this is reflected in a linear and controlled level design that leaves no room for exploration, while Pulse, which is freedom used to a fault, leaving people to fend for themselves, is represented by an expansive level design in which the player isn't given instructions or directions and every single corner could be met with adversity. This allows the players to understand the message and story without hearing a single word of dialogue or watching the numerous cutscenes. The only fault is that the boringness of the first 20 hours will create a lot of dropouts who won't experience the rest of the game and realize this design aspect.

3-I could vaguely remember a recent American McGee's Alice game and thought it was a novel 3D action platformer amongst the many that come out every year, but I didn't know that this franchise had roots in the Quake 3, making this kind of a hidden gem of the early 3D platformers. So far the chapter tries to explore the narrative of the game and how it breaks the mold of other interpretations of the classic tale. This analysis, though interesting, doesn't provide insight into the design aspects of the game itself. This story could have been told through a movie and through a book, the author has yet to point out an aspect of this journey that explores the gaming medium itself. The closest thing to it is how the slow level design and empty corridors give the player a lot of time to think about Alice and the Wonderland's current predicament.
One the best stories told through design in this game was the Cheshire Cat, which, as the book states, "was one of the most important and helpful allies to Alice in the original story, but now he has been downgraded to a near useless ally that to say meaningless tips". The only thing both incarnations of the Cat have in common is their undying grin and that is what links them both together. In the original story Alice needed a useful companion to take down the Queen of Hearts, but in the game's story she is broken and in a disordered mental state, that is why her most trustworthy ally is now nothing but a smile, because is what she needs to keep going, winning this game isn't just about beating the Queen of Hearts, it is about dealing with your inner ghouls. This is actually a really clever approach to the themes of the game that any players will notice without the game actively telling them.

Chapter 4- Limbo is a classic form the indie scene and a game whose art style I have used as a reference many times before. Nowadays it might not look particularly impressive, but its influence for its time is undeniable. Expanding on Final Fantasy's Setback Punishment mentality, Limbo punishes the player with a gruesome death that affects the player on an emotional level but not in a gameplay one. "You don't progress by dying" is the only fear you have when playing this game, it's not frustratingly discouraging that you would put the game down, but it still has the emotional weight to make you think twice before acting recklessly. This chapter isn't as much of an analysis of the game, but more of a journal about a player's experience throughout it. Probably the most impactful thing is how this short 2-hour tale felt like an Odyssey and you could feel the sense of immersion on the part of the player.

Chapter 5 - I had never heard of "The Neverhood" before reading this book and did a quick google search to see what the game was like. It is a point and clicks adventure game, a lot like clock tower and adventure island, but it is very distinct in its presentation as it employs claymation. The game's story isn't clear from the start and it is discovered by locating discs, which are mandatory, or by reading the lore written on literal walls within the game. This makes the player feel a sense of urgency and actively pay attention to the beautiful environments. It also rewards them appropriately as the information read on the walls is supplementary and cannot be found by any other means. An important design aspect is having Klayman be faced with adversity right from the getgo, that will teach players of one of Klayman's features, he cant die. No matter how bruised he gets he will always put himself together afterward, that is important in such a weird and surreal game because it helps players not be afraid of experimenting and not be afraid of clicking on a click based adventure game. The game is also aware of how to set the tone through musical queues, not just by playing different pitches and styles of song, but omitting sound on its entirety leaving just ominous silent and small sound effects to punctuate a sense of mystery and possible danger as well as loneliness.
The most important aspect of this game is how quickly it teaches you about its premise and mission and how it teaches you without a boring sense of formality, but through the player's own drive to quest and find out more. By solving the challenges themselves you learn the mechanics without a single line of dialogue and it is structured in such a manner that doesn't feel like a tutorial, but as a real challenge you need to face to progress. The extremely simple premise is also very strong and get's the player hooked immediately, collect the discs scattered throughout the world to learn the story of this place, simple enough.

Chapter 6 - Heavy Rain is very well known to be the pinnacle of a movie like games and I always had a negative perspective towards it. Part of it is the incredible arrogance of it's creator, David Cage, but it is mostly due to the fact that games are losing way too much by trying to copy other mediums, what makes games special cant be found in a movie or a stage play. One nice observation is that we cant talk about games without talking about actions. Game interactions rely on the player deciding upon an action and receiving feedback of said action (sometimes much later than the action itself). Because of that, Heavy Rain's director tried to create a huge vocabulary of actions that expanded the normal jumps, shoot and drive. This is a very interesting analysis of the structure of games, but the implementations are very lackluster, throwing a boomerang doesn't have the same impact as running from a killer and it honestly feels pointless in the grand scheme of things, even if it did affect something we run into the question of should it affect something? Having a set of rules allows the player to have a sense of mastery as he traverses obstacle courses placed by the developers and also allows creativity to use the mechanics as you see fit. One honestly very insightful decision of the developer is the use of inaction as a viable decision. In every game even if we give up or choose the passive route it is treated as an action, we must select that option and click it, but in heavy rain the quick time events which we have been trained for years to click without even thinking of the consequences can have beneficial impacts if missed, as the books say, "it challenges our understanding of game mechanics". Heavy Rain also tries to use the interface itself as a tool for storytelling to various degrees of success. One example is when the drug addict Norman Jayden is having a panic attack and feels the need ti consume more of the drug, the player is then faced with 4 very uninformative options such as tempation, drug, withdraw, etc... this is to show how difficult it is to make a decision during a panic attack and how you arent sure of the consequences of your action, but the result feels cheap as you are forced to choose something and potentially undermine hours from your campaign due to what might as well be a roll of the die, novel concept, but it is jsut that, novel. A more effective use of the ui is the action scene when the detective loses her cool and is orderd to shoot the suspect, your field of vision is clouded by multiples shoot button promts with just a few of them telling you to resist and keep your calm, this allows the player to both feel the stress in the character's head and also make an informative decision that doesnt feel cheap.

Chapter 7- The Fallout franchise is one the prestige franchises in gaming and Fallout 3 was one of the games responsible for making Bethesda a AAA studio of worldwide recognition. The game is an open world RPG that explores a post-nuclear wasteland as your character struggles to survive against a wave of animosity around you. The game's controls are fairly basic and are taught in a usual tutorial, this would normally be a very primitive thing and would create a sense of formality between the player and the game, but the controls aren't what the game isn't about and don't represent it's most important mechanic, decision making. Right after the tutorial you have to live your life as a child going through normal children business, but during the whole process you have to make decision which have immediate repercussions, this isn't told to the player, but by putting him in a controlled environment you have taught him the soul of the whole game and the player won't feel cheated when his actions are shown to have consequences. The freedom within the dialogue allows for a different player experience towards typical RPG tropes. The author tells the tale of when he needed to rescue a boy from a cult of vampires, but when given the option to talk to their leader he was fascinated and that sparked a feeling of curiosity. In most RPGs enemies serve the purpose of an obstacle that needs to be crushed, there isn't much intrigue in the player's side as to what a goblin does for a living or why does it feel compelled to attack strangers. This didn't necessarily change the outcome, a vampire is still evil and in need to be slain, but that change in the perception makes so the player thinks twice before engaging in traditionally mundane actions like combat, suddenly he is living in a real world and not going through an obstacle course.

Chapter 8 - The Uncharted franchise is famous for its tight visuals and cliché, but nonetheless well-executed story sequences. Uncharted was always a reminder that linearity can have it's values that even the act of going through a hallway can be complex and far from binary. I also need to give props to Naughty Dog's amazing animation studio, making every scene feel powerful, personal and natural. The author points out how naughty dog uses carefully crafted in-game cutscenes, scenes where the player loses control of the character, but the action uses in-game assets so it doesn't feel like a movie, to create impact and tension within the scene, but without the player knowing how automated the whole thing is. Such an example is how Nate would climb through the wreckage of a train and the whole train starts crumbling down, the player doesn't have any input during this section, but because of it last just 2 second and it is usually followed by a button prompt from a famous Quick time event it feels engaging nonetheless. From a storytelling standpoint, starting with a later scene would be a novel concept, but with Uncharted it created an instantaneous sense of curiosity and wonder about how Nate ended up in this situation, it can also be used as a means of deception making us think this is near the end of the adventure, but it is a recent event, either way, it works as a means to grab the attention of the player and make him question the scene throughout the whole experience.
The game's second chapter also displays a lot of interactions between story and gameplay. Before starting the mission Nate says that he doesn't want to kill people and doesn't want guns involved, this tells the player about Nate as a character and the nature of this mission, as it incentivizes stealth over running and gunning. The devs went so far as to show the guard that Nathan throws off the cliff to have reached water and swum to safety. This use of the beautifully crafted dialogue to teach the player of how to approach gameplay without immersion breaking tutorials is most impressive.
An impressive story moment is when Drake is separated from his friends and has to traverse some puzzles on his own. During the whole game, he always had a companion by his side giving him tips, so this acts as a sort of rite of passage as the player should be also finally starting to master the game's fundamentals and is now ready for bigger challenges. That bigger challenge comes in the form of the iconic train sequence, which is the longest combat sequence in the game and has the player having to platform while fighting and also paying attention to what is in front of him, what is to the sides, what is tot he back and the very environment itself. It is a dynamic and thrilling test of how far you have come and how capable you are with the game mechanics. After this action scene, Drake finds himself in a Tibetan village and has an opportunity to interact with some of the villagers. During this sequence, the punch button turns into an interact button which allows the player to handshake and wave at the villagers. This isn't just to prevent players from punching the villagers and breaking the immersion but to encourage experimentation and show them the possibilities when interacting with the game world. The villager that rescued you, Tenzin is made to connect with the player in a narrative and gameplay standpoint. He doesn't speak the same language as Drake so there would be a barrier in between their bonding, but since he rescued you there is a narrative sense in why you would trust him. Furthermore, he actively helps you during the mountain climbing sequence, making him connect with you in a gameplay sense. There is a reason party members feel closer than NPCs, they help you, they have gameplay purpose and as a player you don't want to pose them, the same goes for Teizen.

Chapter 9 - Mass Effect is yet another tycoon of the gaming world and one that hits close to heart since it is one of my favorite gaming franchises. The 3rd person shooter space opera RPG consists of the player character, Commander Shepard has to unite a galaxy in order to save all of intelligent life from the sinister Reapers. Mass Effect puts a twist into how we explore games, usually exploring is related to a wide open field where we can go anywhere and find enemies and treasure, but in Mass effect, exploration is done by simply being curious of your surrounding. When discovering a new culture or historic event you get access to more details in an encyclopedic menu called the codex, furthermore having knowledge of this events can help you during gameplay as certain dialogue options will appear more clear to the player and help them make an informed decision. One example is how learning about the Quarian culture can help a lost female Quarian calm down after being accused of stealing during her pilgrimage.

Chapter 11 - I have always loved fighting games and street fighter is no exception. This chapter, though, seems to be a rant about the inaccessibility of fighting and how they fail to appeal to the mass market. While there is weight to this argument, I personally am not very convinced as I have had plenty of friends that suck at these games and still enjoy a friendly match, so this complaint is only valid to competitive play and in that case the game shouldn't need to be accessible, it should be hard to master the deep mechanics and timing of a fighting game. This first complaint is actually quite valid, the main menu UI design of Street Fighter IV, and also most of the other fighting games, is extremely hard to understand for a mass market. For you to understand what Arcade mode means you would have to know the tropes from the earliest days of fighting games and "versus mode" and "training mode" aren't much help either. Smash brothers implement a much more intuitive design that a lot of fighting games could learn from, the menus show just enough information as to not confuse the player and conveys it in such a way that even a newcomer can have an idea of how to navigate through it. Going further on this subject the author explains how a newcomer would instinctively go to training mode only to be met with a confusing mode where you train yourself, another thing that the game fails to teach you. The lack of assistance at this point is enough to make a player put the game down, they are literally stuck in the sea of menus.

Chapter 12 - Zelda is one of my favorite franchises and Majora's Mask, in particular, is within the top 5 due to its open progression and just fascinating mechanic of having a constant time limit looming over you at all times, making for some really dynamic gameplay. Majora's Mask makes a statement through design in its first minutes of gameplay by making the player feel familiar with the Ocarina of Time characters and control scheme only to immediately change everything and make the player adapt to a Deku scrub link trying to find a way to get his body back. This is a clear statement that also plays with the player's emotions and immediately evokes the sense of eerieness that Majora's bathes in and all without a single word. The use of reused assets, which were a time constraint, to bump up the anxiety was a genius move on their part as the players would freak out at the mere sight at some of this characters only for them to turn out to be practically completely different people. This idea of turning constraints into creativity is very important in an industry where you are always running out of time and you can never put as much as you would want in a game. The concept of a player being an agent and not a master of the game world is very interesting indeed because it makes the player have to exercise more cognitive functions and every decision is critical due to the ever-pressing time limit. Like when you turn off the minimap the player has to pay more attention to his surroundings, the player would have to pay more attention to the characters if they dictated the pace of time. One detail I failed to catch is the importance of the youth during the whole narrative and how every single dungeon has a character involved who has to cast aside his or hers naiveness and childish innocence in order to do what needs to be done, this is also present during the final hours of the game, where the town is empty and devoid of people aside from the dutiful guards and, surprisingly, the children who wish to see the final moments through with their own eyes and refuse to abandon their home.

Chapter 13 - I had heard of the Legacy of Kain franchise quite a bit as it seemed like one of the hidden gems of the PSX and PS2 era, but I never got a chance to play them myself. One design aspect the author points out about this game is how it doesn't savor the antagonist to the very end, throughout your journey you will have many encounters with the main antagonist, Kain, and this makes the relationship between the player and the antagonist that much stronger. It's not about just saving the world and beating the game, it's about a personal quest to beat he who has gotten the upper hand on your time and time again, not unlike what Pokémon did with its rival character, Gary. An interesting mechanic is the constant health drain when Kain is the material realm, this ties both narrative and gameplay in an effective manner since we have been told how vampire has a natural thirst for blood or souls in order to keep their bodies alive, but it's only when we experience it through a gameplay mechanic that we feel the ever-present urgency that these creatures have.

Chapter 14 - Toy Soldiers is a game that has never reached me, surprisingly so since it's a tower defense game, a genre I am really fond of. The introduction that the author gives to the game hits home immediately though, the memories of fighting fearsome battles in the realm of my imagination and of any object transforming into a military resource is all too familiar for me. If the game truly captures the imagination of a child playing war then it has my immediate interest.
The game goes the full length in order to transmit the message of this being a toy version of warfare and not just another wargame. It does that through visuals, like the surrounding being a normal home while the battlefield is just a toy model, soldiers being flung around by explosions in a cartoonish style and the base that you must defend being your toybox. This small visuals and design aspects are what is going to captivate the player the most, at least that is what intrigues me the most. The war genre of games is quite the saturated one, so this childish naive sense of wonder is what is going to set this game apart and above the rest.

Chapter 15 - I did hear about Siren a bit, not too much, but the name certainly ringed a few bells. What I heard though wasn't very positive, it's is a supposed hidden gem of the horror genre that has aged quite a lot of time and probably doesn't live up to the hype nowadays. From how the author describes the game it seems that it's a mix of both stealth and horror, but it also goes in a different direction than what is commonly associated with this genre. Most impressively is how it integrates puzzles into the gameplay, unlike something like Skyrim whose puzzles might as well be a completely different game compared to the core experience. Moving a block in order for a door to open isn't very fitting of a hack and slash, but unlocking a door by, let's say, protecting a statue while hacking and slashing is much more in tune with the core game. Siren does it in a very intelligent way as well, by requiring you to learn patterns and oddities about each monster you must then apply that knowledge on the fly in order to successfully sneak through them.
The game also employs horror by transmitting a sense of shock and unfamiliarity in many levels of play. There is a thematic unfamiliarity to a western audience that doesn't understand the folklore and tropes of Shinto mythology, but that is just a layer of scare on top of a mechanical unfamiliarity in the form of the constant deviations from usual horror games tropes, such as having to carefully study and plan your actions against the monsters instead of the usual high action run/fight. There is also a level design aspect to this shock as part of the puzzle is figuring out where to go to, which on top of being chased by a zombie and having to study and plan ahead in order to avoid the creature can be quite the stressful and horrifying situation.

Chapter 16 - The Way of the Samurai series is one which I have to know, but always had marked as just a standard adventure hack and slash but in a Japanese setting. The game's structure is quite interesting for a modern game, adapting a story that truly encourages replayability, but not like Mass Effect 2 where each playthrough can go for over 20 hours. Each playthrough the game shouldn't take over 2 hours and each one of them is going to feel quite different from each other. In that sense it resembles old-school design mentality, one example is Megaman X, which at first might take 3 or 4 hours to beat, but as you play and replay you can easily get it down to under 2. This is really smart design because most people when choosing between playing a new game and replaying an old one is going to choose the former, mostly because such a huge time sink for a repeated experience doesn't sound too engaging.

Chapter 17 - Back at the realm of the indie games and, more specifically, Limbo we get a detailed analysis in terms of aesthetics, gameplay, and narrative comparing very similar, but naturally distinct games, Limbo and The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. During the visual analysis of Limbo, the author points out that to create a sense of unease the game constantly hides the character from you, making you have to guess and walk around in shadows as well as having sounds that "don't relate to any asset on screen" giving the feeling of an ever-looming danger. Limbo does suffer from a lack of direction in terms of level design, mostly in the department of obstacles that the player must overcome. These obstacles can be quite engaging like the spider, but there are more classic mechanical puzzles which don't make any thematic sense in the game. No matter what your interpretation of the game's story is, the way puzzles are implemented doesn't make sense, it's like having a Dynasty Warriors thematic game where you advance by playing Tetris, but this isn't acknowledged anywhere throughout the game. The game used in comparison also employs puzzles, but they have ludic and narrative sense, the game establishes an obstacle course to get to the pie, so you must get, but furthermore, it later reveals that by completing the puzzles you are helping the town's problems, so it feels whole and complete.

Factory References

otavio_neves — 2018-09-15 20:14:23 UTC

When starting to design my robots I tried looking at industrial and electrical appliances for inspiration. This would make an original design even if the end result isn't that interesting in my opinion. Later I would try and use more unconventional sources that are completely unrelated to robotics in general. This led to more inspired designs that also felt fun and memorable.

Everlane (2018) Everlane . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.everlane.com/denim-factory. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-15 20:14:45 UTC

Atvira Klaipėda (2018) Šalia Klaipėdos - didžiulis SBA logistikos centras - Atvira Klaipėda. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.atviraklaipeda.lt/2017/10/19/salia-klaipedos-didziulis-sba-logistikos-centras/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-15 20:14:54 UTC

Napier-Reid (2018) Package Water Treatment Plants - Napier-Reid. [ONLINE] Available at: http://napier-reid.com/products/package-water-treatment-plants/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Frankenstein

otavio_neves — 2018-09-15 20:18:35 UTC

Frankenstein is usually put as the origin of Sci Fi and is one of the first pieces of work that uses science to create a world or story that is grounded in laws established by the real world, it is an indulgence in the possibilities that science presents.

The book itself is a discourse on the folly of men and how science has made humans arrogant enough to try and defy death itself. In the end, Victor Frankenstein might have made a monster, but the true monster is the delusioned scientist, who played with the gift of life for his own

Frankenstein - Wikipedia (2018) Frankenstein - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Posing

otavio_neves — 2018-09-15 20:20:11 UTC

When modeling your robot the poses that you chose can be just as important as the design itself. if you keep everything symmetrical and neutral you will have an sterile composition that feels lifeless. Just a couple of simple changes such as bending the arms, twisting the torso and lowering the head can create an action line that draws viewers interest and gives personality to the figure.

Tutorial: How to Pose Gunpla Putaro's Style [EFSF] PART 01 | Putaro Plastic Modeller (2018) Tutorial: How to Pose Gunpla Putaro's Style [EFSF] PART 01 | Putaro Plastic Modeller . [ONLINE] Available at: http://putrashining.blogspot.com/2017/02/tutorial-basic-gunpla-posing-putaros.html. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-15 20:20:24 UTC

Layman's Gunpla Guide - Posing & Bases! | Otaku Revolution (2018) Layman's Gunpla Guide - Posing & Bases! | Otaku Revolution. [ONLINE] Available at: http://otakurevolution.com/content/laymans-gunpla-guide-posing-bases. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-09-15 20:21:20 UTC

YouTube (2018) Basic Posing Tutorial | Lencarta - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIfrTSFe8Wg. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Photography

otavio_neves — 2018-09-15 20:21:27 UTC

The most import thing that I took is to always play with the distance between you and the camera and use things like foreshortening and the lens themselves to your advantage. For instance, if you film from an angled down shot you will push the legs and feet further away from the camera and the shoulders and heads closer to it, this will accentuate those parts of the body. Furthermore, it's important to be aware of the negative space as well as any other elements that are together in the picture. For instance, should you have two focal points it's important to always have them at the same plane as otherwise it will create a sense of distance that can lead to the viewers confusion as well as mess up the proportions. There is also an aspect to analyzing lenses and the camera itself, but due to the digital nature of my project I dont have to worry about it so much, at the most I have to adjust the lighting a bit.

PictureCorrect (2018) Portrait Photography: A Basic Guide to Posing. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/portrait-photography-a-basic-guide-to-posing/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Game cockpit

otavio_neves — 2018-09-19 12:13:25 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

YouTube (2018) Mobile Suit Gundam Controls - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4HSI4_yNF4. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Chris Burden

otavio_neves — 2018-09-19 12:21:21 UTC

Week 2

otavio_neves — 2018-09-22 21:34:05 UTC

Game Engines

otavio_neves — 2018-09-23 04:54:51 UTC

This simple tutorial serves as an introduction to the 3 main game engines, Game Maker, Unreal Engine and Unity. Fortunately I have already made plenty of tests on the 3 engines, however it was nice to have a professional's point of view on the big 3 and made me much more comfortable in my decision of work in Unreal Engine, as according to the artist is a more professional and industry level tool that is in HIGH demand.

YouTube (2018) How Game Engines Work! - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKrdLKetBZE. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Claudia Andujar

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 01:47:56 UTC

Paul Pfeiffer

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 01:50:42 UTC

In the Vitruvian Figure we see some very impressive modeling skills, the mathematical breakthrough employed in building this is quite impressive. Along with the name this work shows how to use human proportions in a unique way

Jarbas Lope

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 01:55:06 UTC

In Troca-troca we see a simple, but effective use of customization through partswapping. This are very common practice in modeling since it takes considerable less time to swap parts then to model your own parts.

Dominique Gonzales

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 01:55:19 UTC

This post apocalyptic scenario in a contained area makes it incredibly glaring. This, however, is clearly part of the charm of this scenery, making it a prime example when working with more desolated or barren environments.

Simon Starling

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 01:55:50 UTC

The Mahogany Pavilion uses a boat and deconstructs it to the point of feeling unrecognizable. Good reminder to use objects as reference.

Cildo Meireles

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 01:56:01 UTC

Viewing Machine

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 02:01:39 UTC

Chris Burden's Viewing Machine, essentially a big telescope like structure that when looked through has a sort of kaleidoscope effect. From the outside it is a very interesting piece of machinery, the presence of tubes and handles feel much more like 70s and 80s technology represented in media, a look that differs significantly from today's slick and minimal machines. When analyzing the inside it is certainly an interesting effect and view, but aside from a quick shot or some interesting promotional material I dont see it being of much use to this project.

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Beam Drop

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 02:03:58 UTC

One piece that I hadn't much expectations, but turned out to be quite incredible was the Beam Drop installation by Chris Burden. The element that was missing from just seeing pictures of it online was the scale, when you are in the presence of such huge monument it becomes quite perplexing and it is for sure going to be used as a source for mechanical environments, especially when you see it sprouting out of the land as well as the clear divide between steel and nature.

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Claudia Andujar's pictures of the Amazon forest, a work that seems to be mostly anthropological, which serve as terrific references for environment design. The pictures have a nice sense of composition and angles that make the content feel lively and grand, furthermore, the use of filters and post production effect made some shots which would be perfect for concept art. One that comes to mind is a shot of a mountain surrounded by an endless stream of pink trees, the familiar setting combined by the exotic color palette makes the scene feel exciting, just by looking at it you can have this desire to jump in and explore more.

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Inmesa

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 02:06:36 UTC

Through stacking the same piece over and over again, with some re scaling, the artist was able to establish a visual identity. I could create a base unit for my sculpture and build them with that in mind.

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Valeska Sores

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 03:32:23 UTC

Valeska Sores' Folly. A house whose walls are made off two sided mirrors, so when seeing from the outside the house's wood framework looks almost floating and when you go inside the visuals completely transcend reality. It feels like the house is bigger on the inside than the outside, if it was in a game it would certainly be one of the most memorable levels as it turns expectations on their head and create a sense of mystery, like there is more to this place than meets the eye.

Doug Aitken

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 13:59:30 UTC

The whole structure uses acoustics technology to capture the rough and tumble of the park and make it into an art piece. It's quite involving since we are the ones that produce this sound and this goes to show how technology can be applied alongside art.

Tunga Gallery

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 14:05:13 UTC

While visiting Tunga's gallery I was completely lost by the artwork's meaning, even when the guide explained it to me just breaking down the information was brain taxing and didn't lead anywhere. However, while looking at one of his sculptures of a humanoid figure made entirely out of rocks I thought to myself "this would make for some great character design". It plays with the materials and the human shape and imagining how such a creature would move and interact is a concept so interesting it could carry a game on it's own.

Cristina Iglesias

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 14:27:18 UTC

Elisa Bracher

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 14:28:08 UTC

This sculpture may seem similar to the beehive bunker as there was some build up to what ammounts to just a sculpture, but the payoff is definetly there this time. The first aspect that is different between the works is scale, which in this case it goes along the work's meaning in helping you feel a sense of unease from the constantly collapsing sculpture. There is also the matter of shape, the blocks are brilliant as they usually show balance and an uniform nature, but in this case they just seem uncanny and unconfortable.

Carlos Garaicoa

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 14:45:08 UTC

Conrad Shawcroos

otavio_neves — 2018-09-24 15:31:23 UTC

Conrad Shawcross (2018)
Conrad Shawcross Conrad Shawcross. [ONLINE] Available at: http://conradshawcross.com/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Underside of a car

otavio_neves — 2018-09-25 19:03:21 UTC

Consulta Auto (2018) O que é o chassi ?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.consultaauto.com.br/blog/informativo/o-que-e-o-chassi. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Clothing System

otavio_neves — 2018-09-26 22:12:30 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

YouTube (2018) Unreal Engine Tutorial - Clothing System - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GssYZCJwbSg. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Armor System

otavio_neves — 2018-09-27 00:37:13 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

YouTube 2018) Unreal Engine 4 - Equipment System Part 9 - Adding Arm/Foot Armor (Part 25) - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-JhL0FBdOQ. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Raymond Griego

otavio_neves — 2018-10-01 13:44:06 UTC

Very talented concept artist that has some fantastic work with sci fi characters. His style is what most would call the american anime, implementing traditional body proportions and photo-realism that is fetishised in america with the fluidness of the japanese style. The end results are drawing that perfectly transmit all bodily information about the character, but also has a lot of personality and movement.

ArtStation (2018) ArtStation - Raymond Griego. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.artstation.com/raymond_griego. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Week 3

otavio_neves — 2018-10-02 02:21:34 UTC

Google Scholar

otavio_neves — 2018-10-02 14:57:26 UTC

Very useful site to find scholarly research. It filters out unverified blog and makes sure that I have trusted sources that can offer in depth insight on my projects.

Siggraph

otavio_neves — 2018-10-02 15:04:43 UTC

Similar to google scholar, but much more focused towards CG and VFX

ACM SIGGRAPH (2018) Home | ACM SIGGRAPH. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.siggraph.org/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Rigging

otavio_neves — 2018-10-02 17:54:25 UTC

Another tutorial on rigging, this one was more focused on the software "Maya", but applied the same principles as in the book "Rig it right!"

YouTube (2018) Maya - Rigging do personagens - parte 8 - Envelopamento - Pintura de peso 2 - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lbgBXHWLEc. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Modeling Robots in blender

otavio_neves — 2018-10-04 15:08:53 UTC

Good reference for my project, though I wont be using Blender it will be more of a study of the workflow itself, such as working with more low poly objects instead of making complex high poly pieces. Another interesting thing is to remember to break up the model into smaller ones to ease the load times. Having big models, even if they dont have a lot of cuts, can be very cumbersome.

YouTube (2018) Blender 2.8 EEVEE Livestream | Gundam RX-78 Modelling - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1837&v=TD5AxnkWhR8. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

The Fifth Element

otavio_neves — 2018-10-05 15:02:56 UTC

This is a classic of Sci Fi movies, it's one of the first big budget projects that envisions an entire futuristic society like the ones described on the books by Asimov or Bradbury. If there is one thing that sticks out in this movie is the bold lightining and color scheme, usually dealing only with bright saturated colors and complex designs that ignore most design conventions of the current days. One nice detail is how the movie is shot like a regular movie when in the flashback sequence to the current days, emphasizing the mundane aspects of the current era.

IMDb (2018) Le cinquième élément (1997) - IMDb. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119116/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-06 17:40:03 UTC

While walking through Liberdade I found this small environment pieces.

They are a great reference for how I could display my robots to feel more like dioramas. They use simple square shapes and vibrant colors to make the environment feel alive and yet keep the toy aspect.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-06 17:40:46 UTC

Week 4

otavio_neves — 2018-10-08 04:37:44 UTC

Initial UI

otavio_neves — 2018-10-08 14:08:27 UTC

The starting base was an RPG system, so the menus looked like inventory systems of the same genre. This was to serve more as a base instead of the final product.

Basic Movement Experiement

otavio_neves — 2018-10-08 14:08:36 UTC

Blueprint for the RPG character movements and camera.

Creating the menus

otavio_neves — 2018-10-08 14:26:16 UTC

Creating the initial menu layout, I will probably have to remake this set of blueprints as the game options become more complicated

MoSCoW

otavio_neves — 2018-10-08 23:16:33 UTC

From all the methods Kevin showed me to better organize my action plan I took a especial liking to the MoSCoW method. It separates your actions into Must, Coulds and Woulds. This is basically a list of priorities for every feature in your game, a game CANNOT be shipped without all of it's Musts, but could and especially woulds can be forsaken should the deadline come.

In my game the Musts would be the core game mechanics of partswapping and material customization.

A could would be more related to presentation, such as if I am going to use posters or AR or VR. They are cool features worth exploring but they are far from necessary for the game.

MoSCoW method - Wikipedia (2018) MoSCoW method - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_method. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

AGILE Method

otavio_neves — 2018-10-08 23:16:48 UTC

Linchpin SEO (2018) A Beginners Guide To Understanding The Agile Method | Linchpin SEO. [ONLINE] Available at: https://linchpinseo.com/the-agile-method/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Scrum Method

otavio_neves — 2018-10-08 23:17:07 UTC

Mike Cohn (2018) Scrum Methodology and Project Management. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/scrum. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Brazil Game Show

otavio_neves — 2018-10-12 01:43:31 UTC

Today I had the very special opportunity to visit BGS or Brasil Game Show, the biggest gaming event in Latin America. Even though, unlike BIGFestival, this event is more tailored towards playing games instead of making them there was still some research opportunities. The biggest addition this year was the indie's alley, a section of the event dedicated to indie creators showing their games off to the public and potentially industry professionals. There I was able to talk with 3 projects that caught my attention: Lenin The Lion is 2D narrative puzzle game that was entirely made by one person, when talking to him about the development there was a clear source of resourcefulness, clearly he had a few talents in programming and art, but the rest of the production was made with just wit, showing that you dont actually need to be a one man team to make something good. Another project that caught my attention is an untitled game made in Unreal Engine 4, I talked with the developer, who was a programmer, about how was it to work with Blueprint and it surprised me to hear that most of the game was made in C# as he thought Blueprint was way too slow in a large scale production, though fine for smaller projects. Lastly there was a Q&A with a developer of a recently released game on Steam, an achievement considering the lack of focus in the main market here in Brazil. Regarding that I asked about the differences between developing the game for mobile and for PC/Console and he said that though this was a problem back than when there weren't as many tools, nowadays with multimedia engines like Unity this kind of production is achievable even by a small team of 3 plus a couple freelancers. Furthermore, the online marketing space has become wider and wider, with less restriction put in place of games that want to be on those platforms, a feature that defined the mobile market, but is now present in PC and in some shape on consoles.

Split Studio Visit - Primary Research

otavio_neves — 2018-10-12 01:44:14 UTC

Instead of focusing on production like the rest, today there was a very important research visit to Split Studio, an animation studio here in São Paulo. It was interesting seeing a less sterile environment that we usually see in this kinds of visits, it was a more down to earth look at animation, really showing the people in the trenches doing what they can to meet the deadline, the space was truly alive. After visiting the divisions of the office there was some time for questions, much less tailored to the specifics of animation, but as to the hiring process and the animation pipeline. One thing that was unexpected is that they very rarely do an animation from start to finish, usually the storyboard and animatick are already done, they just work on top of the foundations laid out by the client. Usually you would think that the client would throw his idea and the studio would scramble to make it work, but as we can see it is a very delicate process that requires multiple studios for all sorts of jobs. That also leads into the hiring process, there is a focus on people that can be a resource to the team, which means that the person needs to have that resource labeled over her work. If you are a specialist in rigging, modelling, 2D animation, background art, character design, etc... Then it is hard to see what kind of asset you can be, so try to focus on a few aspects that you want to work with while also trying to remain open to other areas. On that sense, one thing that make me more comfortable is that on top of the work itself one thing they want to see is work ethic, there is much more value in someone with the desire to learn and improve and keep working hard then in someone who is really good, but acts as if he has already capped his level. This, in my humble opinion, suits me a lot as I have always tried to compensate my shortcomings with study ethics and sheer effort.

Week 5

otavio_neves — 2018-10-15 00:56:50 UTC

Augumented Reality in UE4

otavio_neves — 2018-10-16 22:12:26 UTC

UE4 makes developing AR at a professional level a breeze through their introductory project. This template allowed me to explore the intricacies of the technology and swiftly implement it in my own project with minimal problems. Unfortunately lack of hardware made me unable to test this project, which is a real shame since the programming structure is already solid and would only require fine tuning.

fxguide (2018) ARKit and UE4 | fxguide . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.fxguide.com/featured/arkit-and-ue4/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

First wave of robot pieces

otavio_neves — 2018-10-18 00:04:21 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-18 00:05:00 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-18 00:05:01 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-18 00:05:02 UTC

Equipment Attachment System

otavio_neves — 2018-10-18 00:05:02 UTC

This was all possible due to my acquaintance with the Blueprint system, which shows in real time the commands firing off and allows for easy localization of possible errors. One example was with the interaction system that went down apparently for no reason, while tracking the Interaction command through the Blueprint I was able to follow it all the the way up to a node which had been unconnected by accident. This is not to say that the system does everything for me as even when you know which part of the system is down the solution is not always obvious. When finishing the equipment mechanic there was an issue of the equipped item not appearing in the character, I tracked down the issue and fond that the message telling the system to equip was not being able to relay said message and it would fail every time. After looking through all the components involved and past experiences from people in this system I was able to discover that the classes of my blueprints werent set, so the system couldn't find the actors in the scene.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-18 00:05:02 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-18 00:05:03 UTC

Finished Color Creation System

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 02:23:31 UTC

This color on this hand looks really cool

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 02:23:39 UTC

Start of Color Creation System

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 02:23:40 UTC

This market the start of the customization part, I was still stuck with the equipment menu, but we start seeing some personality from the inventory part.

More UI Development

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 02:23:40 UTC

I continued to develop the RPG like menus without deviating much, when the system is all done I would start customizing it to my will.

Cloth Shop

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:40:20 UTC

Since I will be working with textures I decided to got to a nearby shop that sells all sorts of cloths and search for interesting references when building a robot.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:40:21 UTC

Interesting use of depth to create more vividness for the textures.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:40:21 UTC

Interesting display with manyn different textures creating one big image.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:40:21 UTC

Nice mixture of a metalic texture over a very organic shape. This could create an uncanny and yet distinct feeling for each of the robots.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:40:21 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:40:22 UTC

Paper Paintings - Marcelo Araujo

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:52:00 UTC

His work shows an interesting take in sculptures, using layers of paper instead of molding a mesh like in something such as clay. The end result is something that is incredibly pleasing to the eye, creating a sense of depth that a lot of people would think it is impossible using only layers of paper. Funny enough, it is the shadows that actually bring the work to life, as when it is perfectly light up it looks as flat as any drawing, but as soon as it is given the depth it becomes a stand out.

Marcelo Araujo (@marcelo.paper.art) • Instagram photos and videos (2018) Marcelo Araujo (@marcelo.paper.art) • Instagram photos and videos . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/marcelo.paper.art/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:55:16 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 17:55:26 UTC

Syd Mead

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:02:47 UTC

Visionary for Sci-fi mechanical and environmental design, working in some of the premiere sci fi franchises such as Tron, Mass Effect, Blade Runner, Aliens and Mobile Suit Gundam. His visual style is recognizable from a mile away.

His unique style manages to immerse the viewer into the fantastic sci fi worlds he creates.

Wikipedia (2018) Syd Mead. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Mead. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:09:22 UTC

The Guardian (2018) The 10 best theatre designs – in pictures | Stage | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2011/may/22/set-theatre-design-in-pictures#img-4. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Theatre Environment

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:09:26 UTC

In such a confined space such as the stage of a theatre there is a need for a certain cleverness in order to awe the audience. In this cas they cleverly use shadows and the elevation of the stage to create the feeling of a towering building. If you direct your eyes towards the base you will see that it is actually pretty short and shouldnt feel as oppressive as it actually does.

The Guardian (2018) The 10 best theatre designs – in pictures | Stage | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2011/may/22/set-theatre-design-in-pictures#img-4. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:09:29 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:09:50 UTC

Theatre Set Design

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:10:09 UTC

Theatre design is very unconvencional when it comes to creating an environment. This mostly due to the limitations as wells as focus on the actors and never limiting their range of movement. Still, there are some interesting compositions that can come from this design, expecially when they break the usual boundaries of the stage and go beyond other medias.

The Guardian (2018) The 10 best theatre designs – in pictures | Stage | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2011/may/22/set-theatre-design-in-pictures#img-4. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Plant Shop

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:13:11 UTC

This small shop which I passed by while walking in the street contains some interesting composition references with it's plants. As we can see the plants are not traditionaly presented in the cute vase on a shelf, they are boldly shown to the world in tandem with each other. Together they make the shop feel vivid and lively, you can feel that the place is breathing due to the lines of all the different plant shapes. It's use of colors is also interesting as it sticks to a very nature'esk color scheme with subtle browns and diverse greens.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:13:11 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:13:12 UTC

Cel Shading

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:25:58 UTC

I decided to give my project a visual identity through a technique called "Cel Shading", a post process technique which takes a raw image and simplify it's color patters to only a few tones per color, making the image look very flat, like a cartoon of sorts. This would, hopefully make my game very charming and also more alive as the regular 3D models and their usual shading feels very sterile and lifeless.

YouTube (2018) Cel Shader (Toon-shader) for Unity3D, CG-programming - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qBDTh9zWrQ. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:26:16 UTC

Cel shading - Wikipedia (2018) Cel shading - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel_shading. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Instruments

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:26:59 UTC

When looking for interesting shapes and references when building the robot parts I started to take notice that Instruments may be a really good fit. They, much like robot parts, have to balance form and function, you want your instrument, visually, to represent a culture or a tradition or even a brand so the style is very important. That said, however, an instrument that can't play is of no use and so they have constantly managed to find different mays of making a playable instrument with a different shape. This is similar as to how robots have this aesthetic that people like about them, but as they are machines with functions you can't just ignore that they have a work they need to accomplish, be it building or even battling.

Drum - Wikipedia (2018) Drum - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:33:43 UTC

Guitar - Wikipedia (2018) Guitar - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:36:01 UTC

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otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:37:48 UTC

Flute - Wikipedia (2018) Flute - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flute. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:37:59 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:38:02 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 18:38:05 UTC

Myers Briggs Test

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:15:27 UTC

See my analysis of the Myers Briggs Test in the Game Development Column.

MBTI^® Basics (2018) [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/home.htm?bhcp=1. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Hostile Architecture

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:20:38 UTC

Hostile architecture or unpleasent design is something that many cities have been adopting recently and it's the careful use of design to marginalize even more people in dire conditions. Examples of hostile desing is installing bike racks in the streets, seemingly functional and most people wont notice, but this disencourages homeless people from sleeping there. Same could go for a sudden fence on a ledge, bolts on steps or even the use of smaller benches. Like any form of design it accomplishes this goal while being invisible, but while most design wants to bring together people this Hostile Design wants to tear them apart and neglect a part of society. It's a dangerous practice, but one that I must be aware when designing my game, many conventions could have roots in hostile design, such as favoring right handed people, but it could also be used as reference for levels and environments.

Hostile architecture - Wikipedia (2018) Hostile architecture - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_architecture. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Hostile Design in Norwich

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:34:27 UTC

Though the architecture here may seem like some sort of expression, this design change is entirerly made with hostile intent. This shape is to disencourage homeless people from peeing on the corners, the shape makes so it would sprinkle on them as well. Like most hostile design it is unnoticeble, but it changes completly the nature of the environment, especially with how blend in it is. In a game I could add small details that may seem invisible, but if someone took the time to try and understand they would get more info on how the society in my game works, maybe some hidden bullet marks on a tree trunk, for example.

Anti urination devices in Norwich - Wikipedia (2018) Anti urination devices in Norwich - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_urination_devices_in_Norwich. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Norwegian Public Toilets

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:40:35 UTC

Modern toilets favor functionalism above all design philosophies, it is compact, simple, very identifiable, but at the same time it lacks personality. There is an argument that a public bathroom doesn't need personality, however if you see the old toilets they retain a sense of presence that this disposable ones simply dont have.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:40:39 UTC

Older toilets

Bird Control Spikes

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:44:42 UTC

More examples of hostile designs, this time designed towards excluding animals.

Bird control spike - Wikipedia (2018) Bird control spike - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_control_spike. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:45:34 UTC

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otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:45:40 UTC

Scarecrow

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:46:09 UTC

The idea to use common tools and appliances to make a human shape is very interesting from a design standpoint. This isnt mearly an aesthetic object as it carries a function, but that very function is intertwined with art, what is the least that I need to make something look human. It really breaks down the boundaries of what can be identified as human or not.

Scarecrow - Wikipedia (2018) Scarecrow - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarecrow. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Simulacrum

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 19:46:33 UTC

In philosophy, the robots I design could be considered simulacra. Simulacrum was a term coined by Plato in his book to describe a type of reproduction. According to him, object before being conceived live in the ideal plane, where they do not posses shape, only concepts which define them. When we bring an object to this world, such as an artisan making a chair, you are actually making a copy of the idea of a chair that lives in the Collective consciousness. When, however we make a copy or replica of something that has already being molded, we bring to life a simulacrum. Robots are a reproduction of humans by human hands, they do not come from the ideal human shape that lies in the consciousness, it comes from observation of the already molded humans that live. The idea of simulacrum also lives very closely to the world of art as many artists, especially back then, were very focused on reproductions and replicating nature through art.

Simulacrum - Wikipedia (2018) Simulacrum - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacrum. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:08:33 UTC

Saxophones are especially interesting for this project due to their more mechanical look, often resembling a mechanism of sorts

Saxophone - Wikipedia (2018) Saxophone - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxophone. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

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otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:10:31 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:10:40 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:11:10 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:11:14 UTC

Lo-Fi Music

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:12:58 UTC

An artistic movement whose waves are still felt till this day, Lo-fi or "low fidelity" is a movement which put restrictions for any musicians when producing their music, usually being considered poorly produced. Songs made with this in mind, usually contain the basic melody of the music, removing everything that is not needed, leaving only the very essence of the song. This mentality of minimalism is ideal for building strong foundations for any art piece and this movement shows that when creating something we are sometimes too attached to conventions and luxuries and forget the very essence of whatever we are trying to create.

Lo-fi music - Wikipedia(2018) Lo-fi music - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo-fi_music. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Germany Year Zero

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:14:32 UTC

Example of Neorealism movie. This one is unique in that it depicts the life of a German family and their struggles instead of the usual use of the Germans as antagonistic cynical villains.

Vimeo (2018) Deutschland im Jahre Null - Germany, Year Zero (1948) - with English subtitles on Vimeo. [ONLINE] Available at: https://vimeo.com/104112168. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Italian Neorealism

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:15:02 UTC

When researching ways to make this project feel personal to the player I found out about the Italian Neorealism movement. It basically consists on forsaking big budgets and heroic dramas for a more grounded and down to earth depiction of society, the people are the actors and their stories are the plot.

When playing with Gunpla they might seem like these huge wonders of nature, but in actuality they are tiny fragile toys and most of the times their story will be up to you to decide, this grounded feeling gives a personal appeal to the model, making some form of parental bond between the creator and the machine.

Italian neorealism - Wikipedia. 2018. Italian neorealism - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_neorealism. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Functionalism

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:16:59 UTC

"In architecture, functionalism is the principle that buildings should be designed based solely on the purpose and function of the building."

This principle is at the very core of robot designs. They fight their very nature as an expressive media, but also serving as functions, be it real functions or fictional such as the plot or an appeal. As such, understanding functionalism's place in the world is important in order to understand possible future trends in robot design, especially as technology evolves and their shapes become less and less tied to the needs of the equipment.

Functionalism (architecture) - Wikipedia (2018) Functionalism (architecture) - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism_(architecture). [Accessed 19 October 2018].

McQueen - Documentary

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:20:44 UTC

IMDb (2018) McQueen (2018) - IMDb. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6510332/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Exquisite Corpse

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:22:35 UTC

This game of sorts consists of a string of words defined only by a slight theme in order to serve as inspiration for a drawing. If anything, this technique explores the boundaries of our imagination when presented to descriptive words combined with things that are honestly not meant to go with them, but, in turn, end up showing amazing results as it is far from predictable.

Spore

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:23:17 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

SPORE™ on Steam (2018) SPORE™ on Steam. [ONLINE] Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/17390/SPORE/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Football Manager

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:23:47 UTC

Football Manager 2018 on Steam (2018) Football Manager 2018 on Steam. [ONLINE] Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/624090/Football_Manager_2018/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Chappie

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:25:09 UTC

Chappie is a much more recent take on the spirit of transhumanism and AI that were first presented in Ghost in the Shell decades before. Unfortunately this movie is bogged down by it's confusion on it's own principles and becomes much more a commentary about the inner corruption of the human soul rather than exploring the development of a new form of life that is AI.

Chappie (film) - Wikipedia (2018) Chappie (film) - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappie_(film). [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Skylanders

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:25:41 UTC

Skylanders is the pioneer of the toys to life game genre, the one that popularized the interaction betweem real world customization and a digital environment. By buying real life toys you are able to use them to interect in game, literally transporting the toys to life.

Skylanders Video Game - Official Site (2018) Skylanders Video Game - Official Site. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.skylanders.com/br/pt. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Stardoll.com

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:26:38 UTC

More system examples, with some technical and minute changes, but nothing different from previous.

Dress Up Games for Girls - Stardoll | English (2018) Dress Up Games for Girls - Stardoll | English. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.stardoll.com/en/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Nolan Bushnell

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:29:53 UTC

Nolan Bushnell holds a special place in the world of game development as he was the founder of the vanguard company "Atari", who bravely popularised the use of computer technology as a veichly for completly electronic games. His background is entirerly engineering and so his work to get to where the Atari got is something to be studied as it is the foundation of all game development in the modern era.

Nolan Bushnell - Wikipedia (2018) Nolan Bushnell - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolan_Bushnell. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Transhumanism

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:30:37 UTC

Transhumanism has been a topic of intense debate in the last decades especially with the increase technological developments. The core of the debate is how much will we gain and or loose by going beyond our humanity through the enhancements of machines. America usually is pretty stiff about this, fetishising concepts like the human soul and freedom, while the east is a whole lot more liberal about the situation, usually accepting technological advancements even if it undermines the mystical of the human mind.

In terms of mech design this is a huge reason why japanese mechs always try to resemble the human and are presented as wonders of natures, while the american mech look like factory appliances and even when they look human it is to create a sense of discomfort and disgust.

Transhumanism - Wikipedia (2018) Transhumanism - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:30:52 UTC

What is Transhumanism? (2018) What is Transhumanism?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://whatistranshumanism.org/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:31:03 UTC

Sarwant Singh (2018) Transhumanism And The Future Of Humanity: 7 Ways The World Will Change By 2030. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarwantsingh/2017/11/20/transhumanism-and-the-future-of-humanity-seven-ways-the-world-will-change-by-2030/#1af59b3f7d79. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

ICONICast - Art Podcast

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:32:04 UTC

ICONICast (2018) ICONICast - Um podcast de arte, desenho e outras coisas nada artísticas.. [ONLINE] Available at: http://cast.iconic.network/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Black Desert

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:35:21 UTC

YouTube (2018) Black Desert Character Creation Time-lapse [BDO] - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72rFa_TscYk. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Umberto Boccioni

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:38:46 UTC

This work by Umberto Boccioni is a very interesting reference when considereing things that resemble the human figure. It in theory does not resemble anything human and yet the sillouete and movement has something that is strictly regarded as human. The shape is also very fuid, offering a range of motion from many directions that is different from more static representations of people.

www.metmuseum.org (2018) No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/485540. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Frederico Felini

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:42:05 UTC

Frederic Felini is one of the most influential directors when it comes to Italian Neorealism and his earlier work is to be examined to understand what the movement was all about. Unique to him, however, was the introduction of dream like elements which gave the grounded movies a sense of mystery, as if the boundaries between dream and reality started to blur.

Federico Fellini - Wikipedia(2018) Federico Fellini - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Fellini. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Avatar Concept Art

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:43:37 UTC

When talking about building an alien world there aren't many projects that come even close to the wonders of the planet Pandoria from Avatar.

This plant is the very definition of lush and vibrant, working with colors over the whole spectrum in a most captivating manner. There is no point where your eyes arent wondering through the screen, looking at a weird plant or a dazzling mushroom or a pack of alien animals whose shape is almost indescribable. The creature design itself isnt exceptional, most animals feel like weird mashup of Earth's fauna, but the flora is just fantastic, the forests and floating islands of Pandoria are some of the most breath taking concepts to ever hit the big screen.

RYANCHURCH.COM (2018) AVATAR — RYANCHURCH.COM. [ONLINE] Available at: http://ryanchurch.com/avatar/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

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otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:43:44 UTC

The Cremester Cycle

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:44:46 UTC

The Cremaster Cycles reminds me a lot of "The Fifth Element" in terms of SciFi reference, it has that very well know 70s vision of how the distant future would look like. What is interesting about this is that when trying to figure out the fashion style of a culture so further in time to conceive we just throw any convention aside and try to imagine a society that would like this kind of desorganized design, the design is creating the culture, not the other way around.

The Cremaster Cycle - WikipediA (2018) The Cremaster Cycle - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cremaster_Cycle. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Next Gen

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:46:07 UTC

This movie is here less because of it's sci fi and robot design, since they are mostly traditional cartoony robots inspired by electrical appliances, and more because of how it was made. This is one of the first movies to have been entirely made in Blender, meaning modelling, animation, lighting and post was done all in the same software. This truly is a milestone for the graphics industry.

Next Gen | Netflix Official Site (2018) Next Gen | Netflix Official Site. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.netflix.com/br/title/80988892. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Horizon Zero Dawn

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:47:22 UTC

This reference is still going to be used as only a guideline, but it is impressive how inventive it is. The world of Horizon Zero Dawn imagines a nature that has merged with machines and so every animal is beyond recognizable, with only traces of the nature that is left within it. At the same time it is undoubtedly natural due to their movements and mannerism.

I.A. Magazine (2018) 130 Horizon Zero Dawn Concept Art. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.iamag.co/creating-horizon-zero-dawn-character/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

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otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:51:58 UTC

A technique used by artist to create the illusion of a 3D dimensional object using only a flat 2D layer.

Can be useful when thinking of a shader for the project as combining 2D and 3D is part of what I am aiming for with a toon shader, even though this tends to be more on the photo realism side

Trompe-l'œil - Wikipedia (2018) Trompe-l'œil - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe-l%27%C5%93il. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Standing on the shoulders of Giants

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:55:01 UTC

This metaphor, which is a stand in for "discovering truth by building on previous discoveries" is not only a great life motto, but also an interesting reference for design. While the idea of a small robot climbing a bigger robot is appealing it is also very common, a more interesting interpretation would be a robot that is a mix of ancient and newer tech, the newer tech beign clearly derived from the older as well as dependent on it. This would show that the new discoveries still have rough and humble beginnings and would add some narrative depth to them.

Standing on the shoulders of giants - Wikipedia (2018) Standing on the shoulders of giants - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Treaty on the exploration and colonization of celestial bodies

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:56:22 UTC

Currently every Celestial Body is protected from being colonized and declared property from a sovereign nation, this means that in space and other celestial bodies there are no laws or cultures that are being enforced upon you. This would make space explorers unbound from all of the conventions we aquired from 2 thousand years of civilizations, imagining a society in space isn't just an extension of today's society, it is a brand new one.

We dont need to think about fashion trends and date, about current debates of form over function, we are discussing a place where the only aspects that will define our culture is our spirit and our collective desires. This is really important when thinking about the far future, remove yourself from the knowledge of the past and re-imagine society rising again, but in the stars.

WEBLIS (2018) WEBLIS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www2.ecolex.org/elis_isis3w.php?rec_id=036235&database=libcat&search_type=link&lang=eng&format_name=@EFALL&page_header=@EPHAV1. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

The Martian Chronicles

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 20:58:41 UTC

Ray's work differentiates quite a lot from Asimov's, it uses sci fi elements to explore the condition of the human mind and uses concepts such as AI and aliens as allegories to philosophical problems we now face. There are some interesting concepts when he starts to dwell on these fantastical society, such as the dying martian race, but it doesnt indulge on those elements for too long.

The Martian Chronicles - Wikipedia (2018) The Martian Chronicles - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_Chronicles. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Nanotechnology in biomedicine

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:00:06 UTC

When exploring the micro realm we are dealing with things our eyes weren't even built to see and that sometimes can even escape light itself. For that reason, being able to envision it comes from a synergistic use of multiple techniques such as PET, MRI and PT. This means that you can never experience this world under just one lens, you must always be switching and looking and multiple viewpoints at the same time. More on that , no single lens or combination of lens gives you the full experience, regardless of the scientific limitations this makes for amazing level design, having to manage the same world whose aesthetics and information change from viewpoint to viewpoint while still being the same level.

pubs.acs.org (2018) No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ar800045c. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Architectures in nanobiology

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:00:31 UTC

This article details the importance of colored gels in the field of nano-biology. Though the technical terms escape my reach, it is clear that the use of aesthetics isn't something that is exclusive to the art field and sometime design and function can walk side by side. In this case the aesthetically decision of implementing colored gels instead of translucent ones ended up serving the function of helping scientists understand nano biomes better.

Fluorescent core–shell silica nanoparticles: towards “Lab on a Particle” architectures for nanobiotechnology - Chemical Society Reviews (RSC Publishing) (2018) Fluorescent core–shell silica nanoparticles: towards “Lab on a Particle” architectures for nanobiotechnology - Chemical Society Reviews (RSC Publishing) . [ONLINE] Available at: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2006/cs/b600562b/unauth#!divAbstract. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Radiation in nanotechnology

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:00:53 UTC

The use of radiation in nanotechnology allowed for a better monitoring of that environment and by simply being able to see and envision something in such a small scale has opened a world of possibilities.

This is no different than what colonizers felt when discovering the americas for the first time, it is a brand new world that plays by it's own rules, but that also offers a whole new set of opportunities for humanity. When designing a level or a society always remembering this endless sense of possibility that these brand new worlds give us, regardless of size, is very importat for making a compelling environment.

Atomic force microscopy as a multifunctional molecular toolbox in nanobiotechnology

(2018) [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789814287005_0028. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Building a canoe

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:09:28 UTC

When researching some examples of feats of engineering the thing that alwasy comes up are massive and complex, however we sometimes ignore the effort that goes in the simple things that served as the foundation for the whole engineering practice. Even something that looks as simple as a canoe is a rich process that requires strict planning and use of many different techniques and resources. More than that, even this basic feat can offer a lot of opportunities in terms of design, leaving a lot of the shape and structure up to the artists, showing the beginnings of our function vs aesthetics stuggle.

SkyAboveUs (2018) Building a Cedar-Strip Canoe: The Basics | SkyAboveUs. [ONLINE] Available at: https://skyaboveus.com/water-sports/Bulding-a-Cedar-Strip-Canoe-The-Basics. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:09:43 UTC

YouTube (2018) Building a Cedar Strip Canoe (Full Montage) - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBeiFVHFRRg. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:10:11 UTC

Instructables.com (2018) Building a Cedar Strip Canoe: 23 Steps (with Pictures). [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.instructables.com/id/Building-A-Cedar-Strip-Canoe/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Polynesian Culture and Masks

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:10:50 UTC

In polynesian culture there were many gods with a rich mythology. This culture was especially well known for being a nomad tribe that bravely traversed the ocean and colonized many islands, from Hawaii to the eastern Islands to New Zealand. Furthermore, they are also very well know for their culture of masks, often representing a connection to the gods and is present in many rituals and decorations.

Tiki Mask History & Meaning | Polynesian Masks | Tiki Shack Importer (2018) Tiki Mask History & Meaning | Polynesian Masks | Tiki Shack Importer. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.tikishackimporter.com/tiki-mask-history.html. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

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otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:13:05 UTC

TikiMaster.com (2018) Polynesian Tiki Mask 12" - Hawaiian Decor | #dpt514330 - TikiMaster.com. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.tikimaster.com/polynesian-tiki-mask-12-hawaiian-decor-dpt514330/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:13:05 UTC

Pinterest (2018) 51 best Polynesian Hand Carved Masks images on Pinterest in 2018 | Hand carved, Tiki lounge and Tiki mask. [ONLINE] Available at: https://br.pinterest.com/makanahut/polynesian-hand-carved-masks/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:13:06 UTC

Pinterest (2018). polynesian mask - Google Search | Masks in 2018 | Pinterest | Tiki mask, Carving and Polynesian art. [ONLINE] Available at: https://br.pinterest.com/pin/461478293048034384/?lp=true. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:13:07 UTC

HalloweenCostumes.com ( 2018) Adult Polynesian Overhead Tiki Latex Mask. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.halloweencostumes.com/adult-polynesian-overhead-latex-mask.html. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:16:19 UTC

Unlike most of my references that take traditional sci fi and cyberpunk, this book has a more steampunk depiction of robots with the automaton being one of the central pieces of the plot. This book isn't a story about the robot, but a story about curiosity and it explored the wonder that a creator and builder have when trying to construct their piece. Because of this it is not the best reference for mecha design, even though the automaton is pretty unique, it is more of a reference for how the game should be played, emphasizing the mystery behind the gears and bolts of every robot.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Wikipedia (2018) The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invention_of_Hugo_Cabret. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:18:07 UTC

The Automaton from _The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2018) The Automaton from _The Invention of Hugo Cabret_. [ONLINE] Available at: http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/webproj/212_spring_2015/Katrina_Howe/Howe_Katrina/Hugo_Cabret.html. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:18:10 UTC

Brian Selznick Wiki (2018) Automaton | Brian Selznick Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://hugo.wikia.com/wiki/Automaton. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

French New Wave

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:19:22 UTC

The French New Wave shows something that is very common in the entertainment industry, that is, innovation by adversity. In this case, we see a mass of artists breaking free from the constraints that were usually placed on top of movies for standard releases and in order to innovate from that they employed a series of filming techniques, such as long tracking shots and so called "absurd themes". From books, to movies, to games, comics, every source of media has went through a period of innovation due to technical or contextual restrictions.

French New Wave - Wikipedia (2018) French New Wave - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_New_Wave. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Painting depicting the Maori tribe

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:20:19 UTC

Māori people - Wikipedia ( 2018) Māori people - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81ori_people. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Train modeling

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:24:22 UTC

This is probably the most popular segment of the toy modeling community and one that has the oldest origins. Ever since humans were able to travel great distances in a much faster rate we have been fascinated in visualizing such trips as well as the colossal scale of nature in comparision to our humble technologies. That is why even though train modeling seems to be focused on trains, a huge part of it is capturing the environment where the train will navigate through, creating varied and interesting roads that also feel trustworthy to nature.

YouTube (2018) Largest Model Train Show of the World - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB2UlEOg-sg. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-19 21:25:00 UTC

Rail transport modelling - Wikipedia (2018) Rail transport modelling - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_modelling. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

AR in Unreal Engine

otavio_neves — 2018-10-21 01:47:04 UTC

Collection of videos to explain the tools that Unreal Engine's got for mobile development of VR and AR technology

YouTube (2018) Getting Started with Handheld AR | Live Training | Unreal Engine Livestream - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1416&v=xi1u287Kyhw. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-21 01:47:42 UTC

YouTube (2018) Getting Started with the AR Template | Live Training | Unreal Engine Livestream - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=P3vrr2SZfSs. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Frank Gehry - Documentary

otavio_neves — 2018-10-21 16:56:28 UTC

In this documentary we explore the story of the famous artist and architect Frank Gehry. With an impressive body of work, Frank stated that a crucial moment in his life was when a client noticed his love for that which breaks rules and conventions and convinced him to do that with his work instead of creating things that he does not believe in. After that he was able to fully explore the range of architecture, thinking not of the buildings as mere functions, but ways to express art. Many even criticize his work saying that it steals the show when used for galleries, taking the focus away from the art and onto the building.

When seeing how he works, he always starts with small models, but makes sure to work with different scales as they can help him remember he is building a building and not an object. He also seems to have a distaste for the flatness of many office building as we see that he can't take it when there aren't any curves from a certain angle. From every angle there must be movement and expression and without worrying about if it will fit in the environment or not. A person in the video actually mentioned that his work stick out like a sore thumb, but at the same time it becomes crucial for the identity of that area.

YouTube (2018) Documentary: Sketches of Frank Gehry - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1947&v=vYt2SQPqTh0. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Tuti Waka Laka - Card Artist

otavio_neves — 2018-10-21 18:29:49 UTC

This brazilian artist occupy a very niche job which is custom card artists. This is derived from the standart illustrators for card games, but instead of having their work constrained by a company and a game, custom card artist can use the information in the card to go beyond the boundaries and create really stunning collectable pieces.

Tuti Waka Laka (@tutiwakalaka) • Instagram photos and videos (2018) Tuti Waka Laka (@tutiwakalaka) • Instagram photos and videos . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/tutiwakalaka/?hl=en. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Muscles

otavio_neves — 2018-10-21 21:09:31 UTC

Muscles, especially the arm muscles are always good referencing when designing characters, they give better reference on articulation and how to make a character's move feel right and fluid.

Pinterest (2018) muscles-of-the-arm-diagram- | Arms Hands Forearms | Pinterest | Muscle anatomy, Anatomy and Muscle. [ONLINE] Available at: https://br.pinterest.com/pin/434315957791888739/?lp=true. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-21 21:09:38 UTC

Kenhub (2018) Diagram / Pictures: Muscles of the arm and the shoulder (Anatomy) | Kenhub. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.kenhub.com/en/start/upper-arm-muscles/atlas. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-21 21:09:57 UTC

Cleveland Clinic (2018) Illustrations of the Blood Vessels | Cleveland Clinic. [ONLINE] Available at: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/17061-blood-vessels-illustrations. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Week 6

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 00:08:17 UTC

The importance of Color Grading

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:22:18 UTC

This was an incredibly insightful video in the world of color grading in films, however, as the name suggests, it only applies to movies and not a completely digital environment like games.

Still, it's emphasis on the importance of color to make intriguing visual compositions is very valid for any visual medium.

YouTube (2018) Why Do Marvel's Movies Look Kind of Ugly? (video essay) - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpWYtXtmEFQ. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:40:49 UTC

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otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:41:16 UTC

Paper Sculpture Experiments

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:41:34 UTC

This sculptures were rather easy to build and yielded interesting shapes, however, they do not possess the mass needed to carry the weight of a robot. It's very hard to convey scale and weight with such a lightweight and loose material.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:41:42 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:41:52 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:42:07 UTC

This was the biggest success of the tests since I made an articulation that actually works and feels smooth for a robot

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:42:15 UTC

Small Android Toys

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:42:34 UTC

Classic robot reference pictures. Here more as a guideline and base example and less as a primary reference, since I want to make my robot parts feel distinct from the current trends.

Action Figures

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:42:55 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:43:05 UTC

"Incríveis Dinossauros"

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:50:51 UTC

Dinosaurs are the biggest myths in terms of the animal kingdom. Like any extinct species we can only understand them by what is left from their reign a long time ago, because of this there are many interpretations of the evidence that leads to some incredible creature design. Such designs could offer amazing reference for robot parts while still feeling new and innovative.

Mash, R., 2007. Incríveis Dinossauros. 1st ed. São Paulo, Brazil: Ciranda Cultural.

Pop-up Books

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:56:41 UTC

Pop-up books are a very interesting use of a well established medium, turning it on it's head and given focus to the very material which the pages are made out of. Aside from the 3D shock that comes from opening the book the real draw comes from the engineering of breaking this complex shapes down into a paper thin structure that has a built in mechanism to fold itself back together alongside the book.

Pinterest (2018) 27 best Pop-Up Books images on Pinterest | Pop up books, Paper envelopes and Paper pop. [ONLINE] Available at: https://br.pinterest.com/circlearts/pop-up-books/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:57:57 UTC

www.amazon.co.uk (2018) No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pop-up-London-Jennie-Maizels/dp/1406321575. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 01:57:57 UTC

www.amazon.com. 2018. No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Pop-Up-Lucy-Kee/dp/1608870081. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Toy Soldiers collection

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 02:02:17 UTC

This interesting piece of collectible figurines is composed of a line of soldiers from many wars across history and each and every soldier was carefully modeled as well as accompanied by a book that talked about this soldier's role during their respective war. This is an interesting idea of presenting your characters, as alongside the visually stunning figure you also get a bit of lore that can influence the fondness of the piece immeasurably

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 02:02:39 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 02:52:17 UTC

Suns in alchemy - Wikipedia (2018) Suns in alchemy - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suns_in_alchemy. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 02:52:23 UTC

The green lion devouring the Sun represents the purification of steel. Could certainly serve as a reference for some robot parts as it shows the origin of the most common material in mechanical development

distillatio (2018) The Green lion eating the sun – physical alchemy or something else? | distillatio. [ONLINE] Available at: https://distillatio.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/the-green-lion-eating-the-sun-physical-alchemy-or-something-else/comment-page-1/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Alchemy

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 02:52:27 UTC

The ancestor to physics and chemistry, alchemy is a form of pseudo science that tries to mix religion and magic with empirical methods, creating concepts such as equivalent exchange. Alchemical lore is incredibly rich, it tried to describe nature and the gods under a methodical eye and created some interesting concepts such as the combination of metals creating different elements, which were more pure and, therefore, closer to the gods.

Alchemy - Wikipedia (2018) Alchemy - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Rangarök

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:03:58 UTC

Norse mythology brings forth designs that are very reminiscent from the Greek ones, but with a clear difference. While the Greeks were at the top of the world, the peak of human development and resources, the Norse people were in a sterile land that had survival as it's highest maximum and their Gods and mythology reflects that perfectly. In there even the Gods were dying and decrepit, beings what control the forces of nature were struggling to maintain their composure and power, this is especially visible during the Ragnarok event in which all of the great Gods die in a ruthless battle. In latter interpretation of the myths it is much more full of awe, but the original visions were super down to earth, bringing the gods down to our level.

Ragnarök - Wikipedia ( 2018) Ragnarök - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Moai

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:04:24 UTC

Moai - Wikipedia (2018) Moai - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Tale of Princess Kaguya

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:05:00 UTC

One of the classic japanese myth, the Tale of Princess Kaguya represents the beauty of shinto mythology by it's weirdly beautiful and moving tale. Kaguya is a bunny princess from the Moon who learns how to love and live with the humans, to the point of considering them family, however at the end she has to say goodbye and return to their land. Even though this may seem weird and outlandish from a western perspective this kinds of myths are pretty common in japanese mythology, no less due to their fantastic ability to tell stories, to the point where even a rabbit moon princess can feel like a grounded tale. Furthermore, the design of things like the moon people is beautiful, it doesnt dwell on the usual sci fi representations of the moon and aliens, it wants to show a heavenly race that, for all it's power and beauty, still is flawed and feels fear and sadness, just like us.

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter - Wikipedia (2018) The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:05:26 UTC

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya - Wikipedia (2018) The Tale of the Princess Kaguya - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Princess_Kaguya. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Hawaii Observatory

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:18:29 UTC

Even though Hawaii is mostly known for it's rich preservation of the Polynesian culture, it's also very well known for it's space observatory, which is unique in terms of design and functionality. The volcanic archipelago does contain plenty of risks, but the views presented near the observatory also show the beauty near it.

Maunakea Observatories (2018) Maunakea Observatories. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/mko/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:18:37 UTC

Vimeo (2018) Mauna Kea Heavens Timelapse on Vimeo. [ONLINE] Available at: https://vimeo.com/75542539. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:18:40 UTC

As much as it could serve as a mech design reference it could be a gourgeous environment reference. Especially with the contrast between the ground and the boundless starry sky

Mount Olympus

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:23:25 UTC

The place said to be the realm of the Greek Gods. It brings out a stunning view that reassembles a damaged mountain from a gigantic war. It is also a stunning view that very other places can challenge in terms of awe and scale

Explore-Share.com (2018) Climb Mount Olympus and hike in Zagoria. 10-day trip. IFMGA leader. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.explore-share.com/trip/climb-mount-olympus-zagoria-hike/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

otavio_neves — 2018-10-22 03:23:42 UTC

My Olympic Park (2018) Mt Olympus in Olympic National Park, Washington - My Olympic Park. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.myolympicpark.com/things-to-do/mt-olympus. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

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Sacred Sites (2018) Mt. Olympus. [ONLINE] Available at: https://sacredsites.com/europe/greece/mt_olympus.html. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

The Science of Beauty

otavio_neves — 2018-10-25 03:31:54 UTC

Beauty and aesthetic is something that is strictly human and that has been with us since our beginnings. What is interesting about the science behind aesthetics is that is seemingly has no purpose in terms of survival, but yet our ancestors passed down this traits to us, showing that is was something valuable in evolutionary terms. For example: In nature, symethry is a sign of good health, as both plants and animals usually grow with symethry and, therefore, something that is symethrical is being according to nature, healthy.

Another interesting fact is that beauty is hardwired into our brain. Alzheimer's patients remember consistently which painting they liked even after forgetting about them. More on that, when a group was asked to choose between real and fake abstract painting the tendency was to choose the real ones, as they were based on fractoid patterns, even though most people dont even know that and dont even understand the painting.

YouTube (2018) Why Beautiful Things Make us Happy – Beauty Explained. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=-O5kNPlUV7w [Accessed 26 Oct. 2018].

Wolf Erlbruch

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:41:10 UTC

This german illustrator implements collages alongside drawing for an interesting cartoonish artstyle that is very different from those from Disney. I especially like it's use of textures with geometric shapes to recreate the different character parts.

Wolf Erlbruch - Wikipedia (2018) Wolf Erlbruch - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Erlbruch. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Tadanori Yokoo

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:41:33 UTC

Yokoo's work shows a clear inspiration from comic art while also trying to state it's own identity through the careful use of colages that blend in perfectly with the rest of the picture, making this new element feel almost natural. The also clear focus on bright, stunning colors and overcomplexity of images goes very much against standard design philosofies of minimalizing content for a more clear message.

Tadanori Yokoo - Wikipedia (2018) Tadanori Yokoo - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadanori_Yokoo. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

M/M Paris

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:41:54 UTC

Unlike other references, which use collage in a subtle way alongside other graphic techniques in order to convey a message, M/M Paris goes into the roughness of the collage and how taking something out of it's context can create a shock on the audience.

M/M Paris - Wikipedia
(2018) M/M Paris - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/M_Paris. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Kurt Schwitters

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:42:15 UTC

This collage artists makes the introduction of new elements feel like a painting, it's especially interesting how he uses textures to define shapes and character parts as well as backgrounds.

Kurt Schwitters - Wikipedia (2018) Kurt Schwitters - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Schwitters. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Lou Beach

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:43:01 UTC

If there is one thing to take out from Lou's work is the use of color. Each piece feels very vivid, especially due to the use of textures that create an interplay between the characters and the backgrounds. This creates a clear distinction between elements, but not enough that they feel out of place.

COLLAGES | LOU BEACH : ART (2018) COLLAGES | LOU BEACH : ART. [ONLINE] Available at: http://loubeachart.com/collages/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Max Ernst

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:44:04 UTC

From this group of artists, Max Earnest is probably the one I can make the most out of. His work, even though it's in a very different context, resembles pop culture's concept art for characters and backgrounds while also being works of illustration with use of collages. The characters and the scenes have movement, not just in speed, but in lore, the world feels lived in, like there is much more to it than what is in frame.

Max Ernst - Wikipedia (2018) Max Ernst - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ernst. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Beatriz Milhazes

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:44:34 UTC

Her works seem to be much more calm and harmonious, especially when thinking about backgrounds. This might not be exactly what I am going for this project though, much of what I banking during the presentation is the hype behind being able to create your own robots.

Escritório de Arte (2018) Beatriz Milhazes - Obras, biografia e vida. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.escritoriodearte.com/artista/beatriz-milhazes. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Kara Walker

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:44:57 UTC

This seems to be one of the top artist when it comes to design with silhouettes, often using composition to strengthen the very powerful black and white color scheme.

Kara Walker - Wikipedia (2018) Kara Walker - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Walker. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Hannah Höch

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:45:39 UTC

Hannah's work brings back aspects from expressionism and cubism to a contemporary background. The distortion of the human body through the use of collages is uncanny and really balances out how much can you distort the human shape until it becomes unrecognizable.

Vida e Obra de Hannah Hoch | Cultura - Cultura Mix (2018) Vida e Obra de Hannah Hoch | Cultura - Cultura Mix. [ONLINE] Available at: http://cultura.culturamix.com/arte/hannah-hoch. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Sara Fanelli

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:46:35 UTC

A perfect use of the childlike sense of wonder that we see in children's drawings to explore the limits of aesthetics. When we are kids we do not concern ourselves with design rules and mentalities, so we free our minds of those restraints and truly work with anything that comes to it. This is not to say that there is no rhyme or reason to it's visuals, there is plenty of meaning, it is just purified and not blocked by any sort of social standart

Sara Fanelli - Wikipedia (2018) Sara Fanelli - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Fanelli. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Airbrush Test

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:49:19 UTC

This was a tool that I had invested a while ago for painting models with more precision. After doing some tests it was surprising how easy to set up it was, only taking around 5 minutes and though it it restricted to super thinned out paint, a solvent should solve this problems. The results were also pretty nice as it sprayed and even coat of paint thoughout the model while also covering a decent area.

Plaster Sculptures

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:49:25 UTC

Plaster had the advantage of being fast, I could in 10 minutes mold just what I wanted as well as drying the plaster with a bit more time until it became perfectly solid

Plaster Sculpture Experiments

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:49:30 UTC

Plaster was much easier to work with than paper and it's biggest asset was how quickly I was able to set up and wait for it to dry, the whole process taking around 20 minutes. The results were very consistent as well, giving a detailed sillouete of whatever object I was wrapping it around. however this is also it's biggest limitation, you need to have a solid structure to wrap it around so I would have to sculpt a frame out of wite perhaps and that would make the process much slower, however I should still keep it in mind

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otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:49:51 UTC

Visit to Casa da Arte

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:50:02 UTC

While looking more into professional modeling I went to casa da arte in order to investigate the available tools that are sold there and the results were impressive. While there is a lot of things there that have cheap alternatives it is undeniable how much help some of this tools can offer, such as a gel that is used to simulate water.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:50:12 UTC

Acrylic and textile paints for different models

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:50:17 UTC

Styrofoam balls, very useful for sculpting as styrofoam is easy to paint and also can be easily molded by a heat knife.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:50:25 UTC

Colored gravel and custom grass, sand and ground make for near essential tools for environment modelling. Though there are some off brand alternatives for this such as mowed sawdust painted green for grass.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:50:36 UTC

Different kinds of papers with metalic and sparkling textures for more varied scenarios

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:50:58 UTC

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:51:09 UTC

Easy template cutouts for paper modeling

Nearby Pizzeria

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:51:15 UTC

When walking through a nearby street I noticed this interestingly designed pizzeria. I am not sure if it was build during the 70s or recently, but certainly evoked a more oldschool vibe. That is a very normal thing in a big city as some people simply admire the aesthetics of the old days, however this time it served a purpose. This played served pizza made the old fashioned way and therefore the looks of the place were but a marketing ploy to convey the restaurant's food.

This dedication of the whole structure to convey a core belief or idea is to be admired and studied even if it is just a marketing ploy.

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 16:52:38 UTC

This was something which I had not seen before, but are sets made of wood that you can put together to form an object. It`s incredibly creative and reminds me a lot of a more traditional version of Legos.

Carbon Structures

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 18:08:34 UTC

The unique shape that carbon atoms can take is something that is completly unique in nature. Even in it`s simplet graphitte form or as a crystalized diamond it is still very interesting how it uses the same basic component in such a complex manner. It gets even more interesting when you consider all the complex structures that humans are able to engineer with a bunch of carbon atoms.

Carbon Structures (2018) Carbon Structures. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/arch374/winter2002/psbmonro/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Daredevil Credit Sequence

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 19:49:35 UTC

Daredevil's Intro sequence is very simple, there arent a lot of intense visual, but every shot packs a punch. We see many symbolic landmarks of New York now covered in blood, not as a splatter, but with so much blood that whatever essence of the object is being completely obscured. At the end we see the protagonist, Daredevil being molded by this blood, slowly taking shape. This is not only amazing visual storytelling, talking about the situation of the New York in this universe as well as Matt's origin story, it also is amazing in the visual department, the fluidness of the blood is eerie and yet it catches you in a trance .

YouTube (2018) Daredevil Opening Credits and Theme Song - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dALGMuPVQqQ. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Antony Gormley

otavio_neves — 2018-10-26 19:50:27 UTC

Antony's work is one that isn't necessarily defined by it's technical finesse, but by it's emotion. The work transmits a sense of fun and joy that the artist must have had while creating the work. Every piece seems to be a new wacky design brought to life and I say this in the best way possible, it gives life and personality to it's designs and the work seems to be much more interested on the designs themselves than some deeper meaning that the author wants to tell, which

Antony Gormley (2018) Antony Gormley. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.antonygormley.com/. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

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Car Mechanics

otavio_neves — 2018-10-27 02:19:10 UTC

In many ways car modeling isnt any different from toy modeling, actually one niche are people who model and collect toy cars. The car has gone from this item of function and transport to this trophy that implements aesthetics and lore over it's actually premise. The aesthetics of cars change from decade to decade and have certain trends and fads due to popularity shift, again, not unlike the toy modeling community, which for some time started to skin down they mech designs to the bone.

YouTube (2018) Home Built By Jeff - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/homebuiltbyjeff?fbclid=IwAR3jXNSMQeqCr_SFFxnVjDmsTmlN_ZxnyR7gFdtf0a8FPyR6wWQtUv6N9Cg. [Accessed 16 November 2018].

Anti-Robbery pieces

otavio_neves — 2018-10-27 19:52:08 UTC