Environment Design Rocks!

[Amit Dutta]

Hey Dom, nice presentation. Very concise and gets the idea across. I really like the idea of the different districts being founded on different characteristics, would be great fodder for design. Well done! There's still two days left. I extended the deadline. Now I have proof of what I suspected, that not everyone reads updates to this thread. I can check it out now, or wait a bit if you like :)

[DomSinkevic]

@Amit Thanks. Yes, I've been caught :), I only check the assignment post and other peoples work on the forums. I'm sorry! From now I will read the replies more :P. Past weeks I mostly checked the google site, youtube and livestreams.

Concerning my submission, yes I would like to work on it a bit more and submit it on Friday. Thanks for letting me know!

[Aumes]

Hey guys. This one is tuff! 
Here i post my assignment. I hope everyone is fine.

Cheers

[Cyprinus]

Wow, I see some cool work here already!!! Wish I had some more time this week, the whole ideation process is greally growing on me.

Just a quick question though, I've collected my ref and inspiration in a pinterest board, would it be okay to just post the link here, or do I need to put some down on my submission?

[Amit Dutta]

@Aumes: Great work man. Looking forward to seeing the full res!
@Cyprinus: Yup just post the link to the board here, that would be fine. If you wanted to pick a few things out for presentation purposes in your submission that might be useful if you have more than one board, but either way is good as long as it is clear what your ideas are!

[Aumes]

Hey Amit. What's up?
I think i might have screwed up in the format when exporting. Is the file too small? If so, please tell me, so i send it again to the website.
Thanks.

Even so, i'm reposting it here, bigger. (Don't know what happened... i'm mentally too tired to figure it out right now, sorry).

Cheers

[Amit Dutta]

Hey Aumes, it's a 1200px wide image and I think it's big enough for me to critique. No need for a new one. :)

[monkeybit29]

Welp work has been picking up again so i've had much less time, but here's my submission. I fell in love with this rock I found, and I wanted to make a story out of it.....but there's only so many ways I can imagine setting up a composition for it. Perhaps I should have added more objects into it? Or maybe I should have spent even MORE time on the notan sketches :^O

One problem I ran into a lot was trying to work on this when I was tired or burnt out. I felt like I wasn't accomplishing much and was very sloppy when I felt like that. One way I overcame that was to go out for a walk, take a power nap, or maybe even just wait until the next day. That usually boosted me back to normal energy.

Either way, I had a lot of fun with this, I can't wait to push it even further. Hell, I might even do a 3D environment based off of this when it's complete :^)

[U-3C]

Finally have some time to *cough* start *cough* this project.

The last few days have been crazy stressful, but something that helped is taking naps between working sessions.

I realized that I have been losing my focus, which resulted in me being less productive, even if I have all the time provided by pulling off all-nighters. Because I thought that since I won't be doing that much with said mental conditions, I might as well take a 1 to 3 hour nap, then jump back to work.

I've pretty much developped the habit of not sleeping if there is unfinished work, which results in me procrastinating after finishing a large project due to fatigue. Being able to sleep a bit as soon as I realize that I am tired makes a huge difference.

This may be obvious, but for those like me who pull all-nighters all the time, definitely try to take naps instead of squeezing more work time out of your sleep. Set an alarm, throw your phone as far as possible and tell yourself that the next few hours is only for sleeping (because I realized that if I have a phone to distract me or if I think about other things, I only get more stressed and tired).

Good luck everyone!

[Bookend]

I can't even start this project this week. I'm sure that there are people who have it way worse than me, but I just can't. I don't even know if I'll be able to jump in again in the future either. A lot of shite is going down.

I've really appreciated the help I've gotten so far-- Thank you a billion Amit-- And to all the others who have gotten involved-- I've learned so much from you! And I hope to continue my journey in the future, when I'm able to again.

[Amit Dutta]

That's too bad Book! I hope you can keep up the momentum and join in again soon. Take it easy :)

Note to others, it would be a shame to lose momentum at this point since this is where you start producing the real work and get one piece totally finished and some linked pieces to work on for your folio in the future. ADs love to see you can work consistently on different pieces across one project, since that is basically their entire job: create a consistent art direction.

In terms of the crits from now on, I have decided that I will basically play at being your AD. I will ask you to push things and work on pieces or make decisions that you might not agree with or like. I might even ask you to do a 90 degree turn and explore something in a radically different way. I figure it is good practice for people to also get used to working with feedback that they may not agree with personally. Just remember that I am always thinking about how to get the most out of you to produce the best pieces that you can do. I will also try and be much briefer (5-10 minutes) and not spell everything out, so you might have to infer a lot more. This is also typical of what you would need to deal with. Feel free to ask follow up questions to me directly at any time here, or on facebook/email.

Excited to see the submissions roll in, the close-off time will be a bit later than 9pm, since I will be out to dinner and don't have the automated thing activated this time.

[Cyprinus]

Will have a look at everyone's project at the weekend or next week!
@book: Hope your situation will be better soon!

Here's my assignment for this week! I have to do this quickly because I have to get up at 5:30 am again tomorrow. I apologize in advance for typos and nonsense, right now I feel more asleep than awake.

Here's all the writing, because in case some find it  hard to read on the resized file ( I wrote the little description because I felt in the mood for it...)

History of the environment:

The scene I choose to illustrate belongs to my own ip and takes place at an abandoned port/factory at the seaside. A few hours or about a day ago it was scene of a fierce fight between the characters,  piloting a huge mecha, versus a giant nightmare (basically a spirt-like monster). The monster has been defeated, but during the fight the mecha had been damaged and left immobile in the middle of the sea, waiting for transport to the base. The characters returned to the scene, reminiscing about the fight and the recent turn of events.

"The giant robot still stood firmly in place, an eerie silence filled up the abandoned port. If it hadn't been for the huge clouds roaming the sky and the glimmering light on the ocean waves, one could have thought time stood still. A few hours ago this place had been a battle field, a scene of life and death, of victory and loss. It was hard to believe. With the colourful clouds passing by the scenery, the gentle waves and breeze, it almost seemed beautiful. However, this was still a battle machine, frozen in place, a reminder of the battle not long ago, a harbinger of the battles yet to come. It's edgy silhouette, almost an eyesore, was tearing apart the landscape, yet it strangely matched the abandoned surroundings. Eyes on the machine, they couldn't help but be embraced by the strange peacefulness of the moment, even if their hearts were heavy with the silence and the recent events. It would still take some time to mobilise enough resources to transport the SC-02 back to the base. Much was lost this day, but not their tiny spark of hope that one day, they could put the robot to rest for ever, maybe even here, where it would only be a reminder of a glorious victory over a threat which remains nothing more than a shadow of a memory."


Location: abandoned port / factory by the seaside
Time of Day: afternoon
Mood /Emotion/Themes: lonely, an eerie peacefulness & strange beauty
Weather: sunny, sky with huge clouds
Genre: urban science-fiction (does this even exist…?)
Period: near future
Obstacles / Objectives:  ruins of the abandoned port/factory
Focal Points: the mecha (the design should be a bit organic)
Activities: -

Here's my moodboard:
https://www.pinterest.com/inspirationcy/...moodboard/



Not really satisfied with the amount of thumbs and stuff I came up here. I still felt kind of braindead while exploring, although it got better the more I did it and it also became more fun. I tried not to make it too dark this time...

I have to say that this is a scene I've had in mind for a long time already, and I'm excited to finally try to bring it to the digital canvas. Hope everything was alright with the file I sent you, Amit.
See you all the next days!!!

[url=//de.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/][/url]

[wasgodx]

Tried many, many scenes. I feel in love with the Ice-land idea. And I rejected the wetlands thing. Probably I'll have, at most, the scene from the balcony and the ice landscape I am doing maybe. Dunno.

The story goes:

"A vampire and her girlfriend discover a Sumerian spell from a book that transports them to the time on Earth when ice elves where the lords of the land.. and the ocean. Will their love survive the adventure?"

Is basically a script logline, but oh well. I haven't put the notans I have from the vampire-girlfriend-sumerian-library because that already exists! Carmilla the webseries on Youtube <3

I just got those two characters and said "let's throw them SOMEWHERE".

[Olooriel]

I was feeling a bit under the weather this week, so I was quite thankful for the postponed deadline... I don't have any IP I'm working on, so I went with the Crimson Daggers scene generator to come up with a couple of ideas, and finally settled on one that is maybe leaning kind of in the illustration direction, but since I'm aiming for that rather than pure concept art, I thought I might as well, I hope it fits the assignment. It could certainly be a movie or a game setting, I guess. I went with just the one scene (plane crash in wasteland), but tried to explore it in different ways and at different points in time, which was very new to me, but surprisingly fun and helpful for generating compositions.

[Richie]

Here my assignment for this week. It's from a passage of a sci-fi book; House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. Found it hard not to repeat the designs. Also have to research more on shape design like of shells or the lattice of bridges that are described in the passage.

[Lordminkx]

Jeeesus guys! Awesome work everyone! 

I fucked up this week (like always lol). I've an idea then I changed my mind...and I've rushed to finish something decent on time... Anyways.. It's about a detective game in dark and terror places... It doesnt look like anything similar to what I've on mind

Location:Northern Europe
Time of day: Noon
Mood/emotions/themes: Moody, dark, terror, miserable.
Weather: Cloudy
Activities: Researching, finding clues.

[Xiaogabe]

Good evening folks! I can see that many of us have had problems this week. It seems to be global! I feel horrible for suggesting an extension, and then not being able to complete my work by it. But, I had to set priorities. I'm designing a game as a group for a core class, and half my group isn't pulling their weight, so I'm left to pick up the pieces...

Anyway, I want to at least post the story of my concept as well as the character designs I'll be centering the story around, tomorrow I'll post the environment designs (it's fine if they're not video critiqued):


So, lately I have become very interested in the concept of stories where there isn't a good force, or a bad force. The interest came from reading about Hayao Miyasaki in my history of animation class.  In his features there is never a clear bad or good force, and the characters are left without necessarily happy endings. They overcome emotional boundaries and maybe learn how to deal with each other.

I also have some character designs who will be the characters “living” in this world. The characters were done earlier, and I'm just finding a way to unite my character designs to my environment designs, so this wasn't thought out months in advance.

Enough about concept and now into the assignment:

This would take place in a medieval fantasy world, and the story would be centered in the growing Sun Kingdom. The ruler of the kingdom is a Queen, and she resides in the Sun Palace. With neighboring rival kingdoms also growing and expanding close to the Sun Kingdom (thus creating a threat), the Sun Kingdom must accelerate their growth process.  As the kingdom grows, a lot of trees are cut down for expansion. Some creatures from nature have tried defending their territory, but they had never been successful, until a spirit is woken. This spirit does not take lightly to the expansion, so it starts enchanting the forest's creatures and environment so it can fight back.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the Sun Kingdom is forced to release a dormant being from deep within their palace in hopes for it to aid them in their quest for expansion.

(Will be starting with just the palace)

Location: Palace (inside palace want palace to have gothic-like architecture), underground of palace,  Sun Queen's chamber || Throne room
Time of day: day, sun setting
Mood: familiar (undecided)
Weather: clear skies with minor clouds
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Obstacles/Objectives: columns and opening floors (releasing the dormant being)
Focal points: Palace's designs and floor (for opening)

[U-3C]

I'm going to have to submit this bullshitted and unfinished assignment. My idea was too ambitious, and I don't have enough time to finish it (not an excuse though...)

I scaled up one of my sketches to start working on the more polished comps, but for some really stupid reason, I saved it over my original sketches. As a result, I lost all of my past comps (they were crap anyways). This was the most stupid mistake I have ever made...Lesson learnt.

Guys, remember to check if you saved at a different file location every time you start working off a past piece!

[DomSinkevic]

Hello again! Great submissions guys! I revised it and submitted it as DomSinkevic_week04_revised.
@Amit Great idea on being an AD from now! Hope you had a great dinner.

[keeny]

Hi guys,

Busy week at work so this is as far as I got. Some very quick value sketches and reference which I hope is enough to explain my chosen concept (details below).

I'd like to put some more effort into getting a better composition with Amit's feedback. I like how in week 2, vossgraphite and yogjoshi achieve not only 'z-depth' but also a real sense of different heights in the landscape. Rather than the comp just looking like a series of flat cards overlaid in parallel.

Didn't get time to try a 5th composition. I had in mind something like [this] with cliffs on either side. But a wide camera on the ground looking up through the canyon at the sky.

--

Concept: Illustration of alien world from 'Out of the Silent Planet' C.S. Lewis

This is an example scene from the world, but I'd like to include some alien huts, perhaps some boats, harbour, etc.


(Standing on the shore of an alien lake/river)

On one side the water extended a long way - about a quarter of a mile, he thought, but perspective was still difficult in the strange world. On the other side it was much narrower, not wider than fifteen feet perhaps, and seemed to be flowing over a shallow - broken and swirling water that made a softer and more hissing sound than water on earth; and where it washed the hither bank - the pinkish-white vegetation went down to the very brink - there was a bubbling and sparkling which suggested effervescence. He tried hard, in such stolen glances as the work allowed him, to make out something of the farther shore. A mass of something purple, so huge that he took it for a heather-covered mountain, was his first impression: on the other side, beyond the larger water, there was something of the same kind. But there, he could see over the top of it. Beyond were strange upright shapes of whitish green: too jagged and irregular for buildings, too thin and steep for mountains. Beyond and above these again was the rose-coloured cloud-like mass. It might really be a cloud, but it was very solid looking and did not seem to have moved since he first set eyes on it from the manhole. It looked like the top of a gigantic red cauliflower - or like a huge bowl of red soapsuds - and it was exquisitely beautiful in tint and shape.

Baffled by this, he turned his attention to the nearer shore beyond the shallows. The purple mass looked for a moment like a plump of organ-pipes, then like a stack of rolls of cloth set up on end, then like a forest of gigantic umbrellas blown inside out. It was in faint motion. Suddenly his eyes mastered the object. The purple stuff was vegetation: more precisely it was vegetables, vegetables about twice the height of English elms, but apparently soft and flimsy. The stalks - one could hardly call them trunks - rose smooth and round, and surprisingly thin, for about forty feet: above that, the huge plants opened into a sheaf-like development, not of branches but of leaves, leaves large as lifeboats but nearly transparent. The whole thing corresponded roughly to his idea of a submarine forest: the plants, at once so large and so frail, seemed to need water to support them, and he wondered that they could hang in the air. Lower down, between the stems, he saw the vivid purple twilight, mottled with paler sunshine, which made up the internal scenery of the wood.