josephchickgamesdesign.files.wordpress.com€¦ · Web viewFor my final major project, I will be...

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Department of Media and Communication

EXTENDED PROJECT PORTFOLIO

Academic Year 2016/2017

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Student Name – Joseph ChickYear 2 – Games DevelopmentUnit 13/14 – Extended Project

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS.........................................................................................................................................2

LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................................4

LIST OF TABLES...............................................................................................................................4

DEFINITION OF TERMS...................................................................................................................4

Unit 13/14 - Project Proposal...............................................................................................................5

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Project Action Plan and Timetable.......................................................................................................8

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CHAPTER 1.............................................................................................................................................9

Introduction..........................................................................................................................................9

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The Background of my Project........................................................................................................10

Who am I?...................................................................................................................................10

What did I learn on my course?..................................................................................................10

What is my project about?.............................................................................................................10

Why my project is important?........................................................................................................11

My Research Plan............................................................................................................................11

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CHAPTER 2...........................................................................................................................................13

Literature/Resources Review.............................................................................................................13

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Introduction....................................................................................................................................13

Practitioners Report........................................................................................................................13

CONCLUSION - Who/what was my inspiration? /Contextualisation of my study.....................14

CHAPTER 3...........................................................................................................................................14

Research Design..................................................................................................................................14

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LO 4.1

LO 1.1 1.2 4.1

LO 4.1

LO 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2

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....................................................................14

Introduction....................................................................................................................................14

Research Questions........................................................................................................................15

Research Design Evolution..............................................................................................................17

CHAPTER 4...........................................................................................................................................18

Research Findings...............................................................................................................................18

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Data analysis...................................................................................................................................19

Conclusion - How did the research help me with my project?......................................................19

CHAPTER 5...........................................................................................................................................19

My Project...........................................................................................................................................19

.................................................................................19

Introduction....................................................................................................................................19

Pre-Production................................................................................................................................19

Production.......................................................................................................................................20

Post-production..............................................................................................................................20

Presentation....................................................................................................................................20

CHAPTER 6...........................................................................................................................................20

MY EXTENDED PROJECT – FINAL PRODUCT........................................................................................20

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CHAPTER 7...........................................................................................................................................20

Project Evaluation...............................................................................................................................20

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APPENDICES........................................................................................................................................21

Extended project in creative media production Learning Outcomes and Assessment.................21

1. Be able to initiate and develop a creative media production project proposal.......................21

2. Be able to use research, analysis and evaluation to develop solutions for creative media production project.......................................................................................................................22

3. Be able to solve practical, theoretical and technical problems in a creative media production project.........................................................................................................................................22

4. Be able to plan, organise and produce a creative media production project..........................22

5. Be able to use practical methods and skills in a creative media production project................22

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6. Be able to use evaluative and reflective skills in the production of a creative media product.22

7. Be able to present a creative media production project..........................................................22

REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................22

LIST OF FIGURES

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Figure 1- What is research...................................................................................................................15Figure 2- How to ask good questions...................................................................................................16Figure 3 - My exercise 1.......................................................................................................................16

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 - Project Proposal......................................................................................................................6Table 2 - Project Action Plan and Timetable..........................................................................................9Table 3- My research Plan...................................................................................................................11

DEFINITION OF TERMS

EP – Extended ProjectUAL – University of the Arts London

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Unit 13/14 - Project Proposal

Candidate Name

Joseph Chick

Candidate Number

20095694

Pathway Games development

Project Title Siren – Night’s Respite.

Section 1: Rationale (approx. 150 words)

For my final major project, I will be using software such as 3ds max, Photoshop, Audacity, Adobe Premier Pro and Unreal Engine 4 to create a 3d ww1 trench themed environment set in an alternate universe. I will be using a majority of the skills I have learned in my time on the course to create something new out of existing events. An environment focused on immersion and atmosphere. My concern is to try to create a cold, worn and rough looking environment that makes the player feel like they are in a trench communications dugout during a war. I believe this project is important and will appeal to the audience because it explores into a theme from 100 years ago. A time which forced the evolution of machinery and played a huge role in shaping the world we know today.

Section 2: Project Concept (approx. 200 words)

This project will be set during a war between the Simaran Empire and the Arbian Union, two of the three

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countries within the fictional land known as the Frontier. The project environment will be set within the support trenches on the Empires border where they are holding back the Arbian assault. This environment will take the form of a communications dugout where a junior officer would maintain communications with the rest of the trench network and with their HQ. The idea for the project was inspired by the trench scene from “War Horse” which peaked my interest in the topic. The environment will be small but detailed, focusing on lighting, mood and atmosphere in order to bring the environment and world to life. The player will be placed into the shoes of a Jr. Officer inside of this dugout on a cold, rainy and uneventful night. For this project, I will be focusing a lot of my research into subjects such as trench conditions, psychological effects of the war on soldiers, ww1/2 German and British culture and trench construction, all of which will help me to create an authentic feeling theme and atmosphere. My target audience is pc gamers who enjoy story driven fiction games with early 1900’s themes.

Section 3: Evaluation (approx. 150 words)

As I progress and build on this project, evaluating decisions is an important part because if I don’t fully pay attention to what I am doing or I find I do not have a clear motive for my actions, the end result could not be very good and I will have neither a clear practical project nor a written one. As I go through this project, I plan on reflecting and showing my understanding of things by stating my decision and why I made it that way. If I come to a stage where experimenting is necessary, I will document each change, why I did it and why I decided to change it until it reaches the end result. To consider this project a success, I would have to have completed the environment and atmosphere to an acceptable quality. This would have to include fully textures assets and a fully built environment with correctly implemented lighting and audio work.

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)

Insert bibliography when it is done.

Table 1 - Project Proposal

Project Action Plan and Timetable

Project Action Plan and Timetable

Week Date WeekBeginning

Activity / What you are intending to do - including independent study

Resources / What you will need to do it - including access to workshops

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124th April

Completing and presenting project proposals.

Word document, Internet access, PowerPoint.

21st May

Finish planning information and begin research.

Internet access, Word document, referencing materials.

38th May

Continue research. Internet access, Word document, referencing materials.

415th May

Continue research. Internet access, Word document, referencing materials.

522nd May

Continue research and produce concept drawings using what I have learned from my research. Begin practical side of the project.

Internet access, Word document, referencing materials, drawing equipment, 3ds max, Unreal Engine 4.

629th May

Practical side of the project – Building the environment.


7 5th June Practical side of the project – Building the environment. – Experiment with lighting.


8 12th June Practical side of the project – Building the environment. – Continue lighting implementation and begin implementing audio.

Internet access, Word document, referencing materials, drawing equipment, 3ds max, Unreal Engine 4, Audacity, Adobe Premier Pro.

919th June

Finish practical project and begin evaluation.

Internet access, Word document, referencing materials, drawing equipment, 3ds max, Unreal Engine 4, Audacity, Adobe Premier Pro.

Table 2 - Project Action Plan and Timetable

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

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This is my year 2 extended project portfolio for my 2nd year UAL Extended Diploma in the media Gamed Development level 3 pathway. My extended project will be in the form of a 3D environment based in an Officer’s Trench dugout within a fictional land. This chapter will explain things such as who I am and how that alone could have influenced my projects decisions, what I have learned on the course over the last two years and how it will help me achieve my final goals for my Extended Project, what this project is about, why it is important and my research plan.

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The Background of my Project

This section is intended to provide a context for your project. It answers this question: “What special factors were at work that might have influenced the conceptualisation and execution of your project?”

Here you can take some of your previous writings and blog posts to address some of following questions. You can use any medium (Videos, photos, audio, sketches, etc.)

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What is it that makes me do my project –

I work on this project because of several reasons. 1) It is fun. I highly enjoy creating 3D immersive environments that portray an interesting setting. Bringing these setting to life is a lot of fun and can be very interesting to do as I learn a lot along the way through research and such. 2) Progression. All of my projects are a showcase of what I can do and how I have gone from point A to point B with a subject. I can look back on these projects in years to come and relearn something I may have forgotten, achieve some inspiration for a new project and learn from the mistakes. 3) Showcasing. As these projects are a showcase of my skills within certain development areas, I am able to use pictures or recordings from them to display what I am capable of to a future employer. This will allow the employer to know exactly what they can expect from my work before even talking to me.

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My personal experiences that influence my choices (idea for the project, my role in the project, how it relates to my future career) – My project plan has gone through quite a few stages so far. Back at Christmas, I was planning on creating some sort of 17th century baroque style environment which was based around colonising a new land full of dangerous beasts. This project was planned with some inspiration from the story and lore of (Bloodborne 2015) and (Assassin’s creed syndicate 2015). The idea progressed to the trench setting after I watched (war horse 2012), a film that shows the Great War from a lot of different perspectives such as German, French and British soldiers, Civilian, Different ranks such as Captains to Privates, etc. The film follows the journey of a horse born in England, taken off to war and had lots of experiences with civilians and soldiers from different countries. The scene that was the most influential for this idea was the over the top scene where British soldiers were ordered to climb out of their trenches and take the German trench on the other side of no man’s land. It was a very powerful scene and in my personal opinion it was executed brilliantly as they recreated a believable, chaotic scenario where the actors showed very believable emotional responses to what was going on. The noise, shock, death, panic and fear within the scene made it feel very powerful. After watching this, I became interested in looking further into WW1 and the Trenches. The idea for a bunker came from when I was looking back at my previous work for inspiration and took interest in my Napoleon project back in year 1 which was set in an underground bunker. I related this with pill boxed and underground dugouts within the trenches and started to develop e new idea. This was also around the time I took interest in radio technology and their influence on the war as I started looking at how effectively modern radios are used within the American army within WW1 and 2 along with their benefits such as calling for evacuation, reinforcements, accurate artillery strikes, supplies, reporting a situation, etc. The idea of a Jr officer fighting the war with her voice is where the name “Siren” came from. As I had planned for a female protagonist who is essential to winning battles via communication, the name “Siren” which references back to Greek mythology of mermaid like creatures who would lead sailors to their deaths with their singing, seemed like an interesting matchup as this character would be able to take and save lives with just her voice. The original idea was for a pillbox within a trench that lead down to an underground communications bunker dugout which I experimented with drawings and a small 3D set which I made in my spare time as a test. The player would have walked around a small underground bunker with a small bedroom and a communications work space. I decided against this because I decided it would not have enough detail.As I took more interest in this early 19th century setting with ww1 and 2, I started to watch a lot of war films and researching into what it was like for soldiers and civilians on both sides of the war. This is when I decided to change the setting yet again. I decided to remove the monsters and beasts from the setting and replace them with a city based war against people which was still set in the originally planned fictional land of the Frontier. I created a short history event list for this land and 3 factions – The Simaran Empire which was inspired by ww1 and 2 German style with a touch of sci fi and steampunk added to the design style. The Arbian Union is inspired by Russian culture and industrial look of the early to mid 1900’s. Finally, the Frontier Republic is inspired by the League of Nations and Neville Chamberlain in the 1930’s. I continued my research into the trenches of WW1 and started to make alterations to my design, using real pictures of WW1 trench dugouts and bunkers to influence my design. I feel this project will be very beneficial for me if done right as it displays my ability to properly research into relevant material, pick important and priority parts as well as smaller details that will make a large difference and apply them into my 3D, texturing and engine work to create something good from all my research and planning. Showing these practical and theory skills will be very helpful for a job portfolio and helps me get recognition within the industry.

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The basic premise of my project –I have chosen to do this product because of several reasons. 1) This project offers me the opportunity to learn a lot more about the Great War, culture during the time and trench warfare. 2) This project allows me to put my skills to the test by creating a setting I have not yet tried to create. Bringing a WW1 trench themed setting to life will be both a challenge and interesting. 3) WW1 was a very important time in human history, successfully creating something similar using the setting as a base for the design would be a fantastic achievement and something I would be very proud to show off in my portfolio during a job interview.

What do I seek to achieve and how it relates to my target audience? –My overall goal for this project is to create a detailed and immersive environment where I focus on visual essentials such as modelling, texturing and lighting. I want to create an immersive atmosphere that gives off a lonely and trapped feeling but also a strangely cosy feeling as well as you walk around the dugout looking at the living conditions, activities with the letters, radios and such along with looking at what kind of person your character is by looking at the way she has arranged things, the pictures around her sleeping quarters, etc.My target audience here is anyone who would be interested in such a setting. It will be a simple first person simulator game set within a ww1 themed mixed setting.

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Who am I?

Use work you produced for Unit 12

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For this section, I will be talking about some of the tasks I did during unit 12 where we looked into personality types, behaviour types and into what makes a character.

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Fear task and design details –

(Summarise – What I did, what I learned, how it is relevant to my project and how it will help me with or has informed ideas for my project.)

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The fear task was both interesting and helpful to work on. Within the fear task, I looked into the fear genre, different methods of displaying fear and how fear is created. I found this task very helpful as having the ability to break down and understand a genre along with the emotions and settings that go along with it would be very helpful for the design of my Extended Project. During the time of this task, I was playing a game called (Bloodborne, 2015) which I took as an easy choice for this subject as the game was set in a creepy gothic setting with monsters and beasts roaming around. I also looked at a survival horror game called (SOMA, 2015) because the environmental design was purposely built to make the player feel uncomfortable and in danger the whole way through. The use of lighting and asset placement for this game was done very well. For both of the examples, I looked into some important factors such as lighting, appearance and colour schemes which I looked into before picking apart a picture example from an environment within Bloodborne. I chose these specific points to look into as I was planning for my Extended project to be a 3d environment and looking into these areas could help me learn more about them and possibly influence the way I plan and build my project. Below is an example from my original task blog –

(Example )

Lighting – Lighting is a key feature for displaying any theme and attempting to provoke any emotion. Predominantly darkness and lower light is used to create a feeling of fear as the darkness and limited vision is a natural human fear as we are less aware of out surroundings which makes things such as spotting danger and solving puzzles that much harder. The constant paranoia and anxiety at the thought of a monster or something jumping out of the darkness with no warning is a constant thing on a players mind as they explore a dark, low lit corridor or room, even when they know that there is no physical threat anywhere near them.

Appearance – Blood stained, rusted, dulled, dusty, there is plenty of ways to fit an environment and item into the theme of the game through texturing. Textures don’t just colour an item and bring it to life, they also tell a story. For example, a fancy looking cup on a well-crafted table could tell the player that the person who owned it has good taste, is rich or likes to maintain a class appearance. Adding blood stains onto the table and cup and then placing the cup on its side could tell the player that these classy people could have been in some kind of struggle before they died, at the same time, indicating that there is danger or a clue nearby which will either help the player solve a mystery or warn them of the oncoming danger in advance.

Colour scheme – Normally in a horror game, most of the items and environments will be constructed out of dull, dark colours as this creates an eerie feeling and atmosphere. Bright colours often represent something good, the right way or a key item or clue. This concept of bright being good and dark being bad relates back to the idea of lighting where the darker environments create a much creepier feeling of the unknown and negative. Darker colours are very often related to bad or evil things. In most stories and such, the villain and their evil lair is normally coloured with a dark colour scheme to emphasize that they are bad people with malicious intentions.

Example analysis –

Below is a picture from and environment in a game called Bloodborne. Bloodborne is all about facing your “nightmares” and fierce beasts. The whole premise of the game is around blood, it’s even in the name. Its environments are creepy and always have the player on edge, but why? What about the environments design creates this feeling of fear and anxiety as you explore the Victorian style streets of Yharnam? (Yharnam being the name of the main city in the game).

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(FREDERIKSEN, 2015)

In this picture, we can see use of all three of my previously stated points, lighting, appearance and colour scheme. With lighting, the environment is dark and gloomy with fog and mist added to further reduce how clearly the player can see which creates a feeling of uncertainty. The sky is heavily clouded and fogged over whilst also being set at dusk. This kind of blocked out sky makes the player feel trapped underneath where the guiding, comforting lights do not shine.

With appearance, the visual setting is based on the style of a worn, old Victorian city, with jagged, rough architecture and most things being made of stone and coarse bricks with iron barred windows. Even the light sources such as lanterns and torches don’t shine very far. The appearance alone is enough to set the scene as walking through this kind of environment, even in a good setting would feel slightly eerie, as it looks like something from a horror film. The old Victorian feeling of another major contributor to the setting as it gives modern day gamers that feeling of being out of place in an unfamiliar time and setting. The hanging body bags and corpses are a clear indicator that something menacing is going on here or has happened here. This, like the blood stain example from earlier, shows the players that this is a bad place where bad people and creatures lurk and hunt.

Finally, the colour scheme. Everything in this image, except for the crack in the sky and the lantern is textured in a dark, gloomy and dirty manor. This darker feeling with no positive bright, comforting colours makes the player feel as if they are constantly trapped in a dangerous, threatening world (which they are).

(End of example)

This task was very helpful as it allowed me to break down and look into the methods of design and how a genre change can influence the entire appearance of one environments design. I have used some of the things I have learned from this task such as the information on lighting examples, asset placement and texture quality in the planning for my project to make the experience as immersive and atmospheric as possible for the player.

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Mind map, Interviews and character design –

Creating the mind maps was a task where we looked at who we are as individuals and how our past experiences and interests could have created the people we are today. For this task, we had to create a mind map which was purposed as a visual description of what kind of a person we are. The idea was that someone could look at our mind maps and quickly get a fair picture of what sort of a person I am. I wrote about my interests and hobbies, what they meant to me and how they have affected me whilst growing up.

(Mind map included below)

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Interviews –

The interviews basically had the same intention as the mind maps with getting to know yourself a bit better. We were placed into pairs and found a quiet location to set down with an audio recorder and conduct an interview of our partner as we ask questions that help us get a better picture of the person. After we had interviewed each other, we exchanged files so that we had our own interviews and inserted them into our blogs.

(--Insert personal interview here--)

Both tasks were very useful as it got me thinking more in detail about myself and what sort of person I am. This helped me understand my weaknesses, strengths and where I could possibly perform the best. It also helped me with character design tips. Designing an interesting character with a realistic and detailed background can help to create a better player experience as firstly, the developers know exactly what kind of a person their character is and style they would have. This will mean that planning the voicing, animating and appearance of the character to match their life experiences will have a deep impact on the character design and make them feel alive. Secondly, the player can connect a lot easier as they can get a rough idea of what the character is like and has been through just by observing them for a short time. I will be using some of the methods that I have used during this task to create the character for my Extended Project. A section within my currently planned project will include a small set up that shows what sort of a person the character that the player will play is. Using simple photographs and letter titles within this small area, I could give a strong idea of the character without them even talking or revealing any of their past.

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What did I learn on my course?

Demonstrate your achievements through proposing and realising a project, which integrates the skills, knowledge and understanding acquired throughout the course. Write about your two-year experience on the course and what you have learned during the course. Also, compare where you were when you enrolled on the course and where you are now.

Use timeline you created where you depicted skills and knowledge you acquired during your course.

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Skills and progression post. –

When I first joined the course, I had no idea how to use any of the required software such as 3ds max, Photoshop, audacity, Adobe Premier Pro, Unreal engine 4, etc. I also had no previous experience with creating games or environments besides drawings and concept writing which I did a

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lot before joining. When I joined the Games Development course my aim was to become better at drawing and script writing so that I could create story boards and concept drawings that depicted a story I could have turned into a playable game, however this plan quickly changed as I discovered 3D modelling. I instantly became very passionate about 3D modelling, using a lot of my pair time at home and during breaks to practice and create some of the things I had drawn and came up with, however this didn’t come without its problems. I had great difficulty learning the ins and outs of Photoshop which was essential for creating 3D assets as it was the textures that really brought it to life. This problem carried on until I slowly started to properly practice with unwrapping and texturing.

As I approach the end of my second and last year of being a student on the Games Development course, I have looked back on what I have created towards the beginning of the course and compared it to what I have now. There is very clear skill progression and it has amazed me with how much I have come along.

For the examples, I have collected several of my environment creations made throughout the time of this course. The first one was created during and slightly after one of the first 3D modelling lessons. We were asked to create a room with a basic doorway and corridor but I got slightly carried away. I then kept working on the environment to try and create a cloning facility from one of the stories I had written at the time. Here I learned a lot about grey boxing and lighting.

Next is an example from my Year 1, end of half year project where we had to create a gallery of

sorts. We had to display our 3D, art, audio and environmental work that we had been working on

and learning about throughout the first part of the year. At the end of this gallery was out

environment projects. In the time that we were creating this environment, we were learning about

foliage and natural environments along with how to create them within a 3D environment. This was

a screenshot from my one. My main concern with this one was the poly count for the trees. I applied

way too many planes which made up the leafs and it made things run slower than they should have.

This is where I properly acknowledged the importance of Tri and Poly counts.

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This project was my year 1 Term 2 project. This was set in an alternate universe where Napoleon had

discovered an ancient artefact that granted him and his army the ability to take over the world. This

environment is set inside a bunker occupied by the resistance. We had to plan out bunkers,

character roles and layouts to match the story and each other’s settings as we worked in groups to

create a bunker network. This project is where I learned how to unwrap and texture very basically.

Most of the assets were unwrapped and textured with a diffuse map but only one was textured with

a normal and specular map as I learned how to do it at the last moment. Still, I was happy with the

way it turned out. It was a story based environment with a clear setting. It also granted me a lot of

development lessons for next time as I looked at what I could have done and my mistakes.

The next one is my Year one, Term 3 Final Major Project. Here I created a post-apocalyptic setting set

67 years after a huge meteor had struck the earth, causing multiple natural disasters along with the

shockwave that killed off a majority of life on the planet. In this project, my goal was the same as it is

now, Immersion, believability and atmosphere. I was also mainly focusing on models, textures and

lighting just as I am now. I thought the overall end product was good as I had been able to correctly

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implement the models and textures into a believable layout and format which made the setting feel

somewhat alive. It was a sort of beauty in chaos setting.

When I was creating this project, I made sure I had properly revised texturing and knew what I was

doing in order to achieve my goals. The main problem I noticed after creating this was the fact that I

had not applied smoothing groups to most of my assets. This made somethings such as the chair

look a lot blockier than it was meant to, which for a keen observer can take the believability out of

the setting as it reminds you that it is just a game with some minor problems.

Next is my test environment which I created for my FEAR project. This was accompanied by my

Practitioners report which can be found in a later segment of this portfolio. The goal was to research

a horror setting and theme and look into what makes it scary, gives it character and makes it

enjoyable. The goal of this quick project was to make a small scene which portrays a nice setting

where people would come and sit together and then convert it into an old, decrepit setting that has

succumb to ageing. I was happy with this one as it didn’t take me very long but I managed to achieve

good texture and model quality (excluding the bottles as I was not very good with texturing glass).

My main problem with this project was the lighting. The computer that I had created this on must

have had a rather dark screen as when I did the lighting, the goal was to create a much darker

environment for both the new and old setting. The outer parts were meant to be barely visible and

there was meant to be a spot light shining down from the ceiling. Besides the lighting, I was happy

with the way this looked.

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Next is very relevant to my Extended Project as this is a rough depiction of what it was originally

going to look like. In March, I decided to take the concepts I had created and make a quick test

environment out of them to see what they would look like. This set took me only 2 days and helped

me a lot with deciding where my project was going to go. I focused more on texture quality with the

smaller assets and applied rough textures to the floor, walls and planks to give me a basic idea of

what I was working with.

Overall, I believe that the above pictures depict my progression with asset and environmental design

quite nicely. I have gone from not knowing what the software is to creating blocky, untextures assets

to creating fully modelled and textured assets and environments. I have learned a lot over the past

two years and am very happy with the skills I have gained as they will definitely help me go far within

the industry with a bit more practice.

Another obvious example which shows my 3D skill development would be 3 of my self set projects

where I created magnetic rifles within 3ds max.

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This first one was created out of many separate parts which were simply grouped together to stop

them moving out of place. This was during the first few months of year one and was a simple

practice project to work on my understanding of 3Ds max.

This second one was created towards the end of year 1. It also had a lot more planning go into it.

The planning went a lot better and most of the parts are attached to the body correctly. There still

was a lot of separate parts however but I was able to learn a few lessons which would help my

modelling in the future.

This last one was created during the first part of year 2. I used a lot of the skills I had learned to

create a rifle that had fully attached parts. The main problem that faced me with this one was the

unwrapping. I had put too much detail into the shape of the weapon and made it very hard to

unwrap.

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Lastly, I have one example of a progression with modelling and texturing. This first radio was created

for my Napoleon project and was in a lot of separate parts that I grouped together. This is where I

discovered how to create illumination maps. The model itself want too hard to make and the maps

went fairly well.

This last one is related to my Extended Project. In this one, I have created a radio and focused on

textures to bring it to life. The indents such as the cross and the rectangle on the body are created

using only Normal maps. No extra modelling was used for that. I did not texture the dials as this was

part of a quick environment test which I didn’t want to spend too long on.

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I have used these examples because my project is based on 3D modelling, texturing and the use of lighting. Showing my progression in these relevant areas is a useful for my project production as the reader can look through my progressing work in this topic and be able to compare it to what I create next.

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What is my project about?

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Post start –

In short, my project will be a 3D environment set within a fictional land called the Frontier where one city (The Arbian Union) has split off from an Empire (The Simaran Empire) and wants to claim the main Imperial city (The Imperial Capital) for themselves are revenge for the hardship and neglect they have gone through under the rule of the Empire. Whilst the peace loving Republic try to difuse the situation, the Arbian Union sends troops to Simaras where strong and well-built trenches dug and occupied by the Simaran Imperial guards stand waiting to defend their precious land from invaders. The Simaran Empire is on very good terms with the Republic trade wise. If they were to go

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on an offence straight away on the Arbian Union, those relationships could be damaged which is why they dedicate all of their resources to a strong defence. This project will take place inside of a communications bunker within the Simaran Trenches where the player shall play a Jr communications officer as she walks around her dugout. I will be focusing heavily on model and texture quality as well as lighting. If I have time, I also plan on implementing audio into the environment to create the Immersive, believable setting I am after. The setting for this project is a mix between 1910’s and 1950’s which means that the setting will look like a trench dugout from a 1916 trench along with the construction quality, ration boxes, letters, etc, but there will be technology from later periods such as radios constructed in the 1940’s and typewriters built in 1930, etc.Post end –

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Why my project is important?

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Post start –

I believe this project is important for a few reasons. 1st reason being it allows me to demonstrate my skills and understanding of creating an environment. 2nd reason is it allows me to show my research. Research and knowledge is the backbone of every great game or project as the game developer and the development crew must have a strong enough understanding of what they are creating to make something believable and amazing. Looking into ww1 conditions will make for very interesting research as I plan to turn that research into a visual project. 3rd reason, WW1 is a very interesting topic and time. If it wasn’t for WW1, the arms race and the demand for new technology, the world we know today wouldn’t exist. WW1 and 2 played a key role in building our world and I believe it would be interesting take their settings and try to create something out of it. 4 th reason, even though the environment will be set in a fictional land with mixed themes, I will still try to make the living conditions accurate to a real WW1 Officer’s dugout. This will allow for an educational perspective on my project as it could give a slight peek into what things may have been like within the trenches of WW1.

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My Research Plan

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Table 3- My Research Plan

EXTENDED PROJECT - RESEARCH PLAN No of Words

Interest/Topic/Theme 100My project will be set in a fictional land called the Frontier and will have a ww1 trench theme to its design. This environment will be set inside a command/communications dugout within the support trench of the Imperial border defensive (A fictional war) and the mix between WW1 and 1950’s will bring later technology into the WW1 style scene. The trench environment will include technology from late ww2 such as better communications equipment.

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Why is it important? - Importance 100

I believe this project is important because it allows me to demonstrate my skills and I am creating something new from existing events. I will be exploring into a time which forced the evolution of technology and machinery. WW1 and 2 are important time’s in human history as they played a huge role in creating the world we live in today.

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My progress and achievements throughout the course (write about knowledge, skills and how this influenced your choices during the course)

200

During this course, I have learned many skills such as audio engineering, 3d modelling and texturing, basic Photoshop functions, research methods, planning methods and I have gained some insight into the industry and what they are looking for. My last FMP was an environment set in a post-apocalyptic world which aimed at visual immersion. I have learned a lot from that project and now aim to create something with similar goals but a lot better. I chose this theme because I became interested in the ww1 and ww2 setting after watching several films set in these times, one main contributor to my choice of FMP was “War Horse” as it showed the great war from many peoples perspectives, both military and civilian, German, French and English, etc.

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My research question(s) .1 – What is shell shock?.2 – What causes shell shock?.3 – How was shell shock cured?.4 – What was a day in the life of a ww1 soldier like and what did it include?.5 – What were living conditions like in the trenches and how did it affect the soldiers?.6 – How did soldiers deal with boredom?

100

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Research Design

Here you have to introduce the design of the research. What you have going to research and how data was collected (research methods).You have similar chapter later in this report. Here you should write a short version of what you write in the report.

Subject you are going to research Target audience Skills and techniques to be used Production research

Refer to your research methodologies and methods in Unit 12.

Literature (Proposed Sources – Harvard Format)

.Trench construction and details

Unknown. (Unknown). Construction and design of trenches. Available: http://wwi-trenchwarfare.weebly.com/construction-and-design-of-

trenches.html. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.Signal corps (US)

Unknown. (Unknown). Signal Corps (United States Army). Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Corps_(United_States_Army). Last

accessed 27/04/17.

.Front lines – Trench life and details

Rita Cheng. (2008). Front line Life in the trenches of ww1. Available: http://trenches.jynx.ca/?page=trenches. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.Radio wave research

Jim Lucas. (2015). What Are Radio Waves?. Available: http://www.livescience.com/50399-radio-waves.html. Last accessed 23/04/17.

.Radio equipment list

biguk. (2009). French/US BC-1000 Field radio set. Available: https://www.ww2airsoft.org.uk/php/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9231. Last accessed

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21/04/17.

.360d trench tourEye site view. (2016). WW1 360 Virtual Reality Trench. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92dNeGwf9Qs&list=FLuQreTFZJGf1KlFyNAvceIQ&index=5. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.Back yard trench and historyThe telegraph. (2014). Meet the man with a WW1 trench in his back garden. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IitKjI4NA_g&list=FLuQreTFZJGf1KlFyNAvceIQ&index=6. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.Trench “over the top” re-enactment 1 st person. SOZO 3D. (2015). 3D Sound - WEAR HEADPHONES - Virtual Reality Audio - WWI. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgWmA2Qn8zc&list=FLuQreTFZJGf1KlFyNAvceIQ&index=9. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.Life in the trenches – Nasty living style

History. (2014). Life in a Trench | World War I | History. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=_G4ZY66BG38&list=FLuQreTFZJGf1KlFyNAvceIQ&index=12. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.Moral sketch (Horrible History)CBBC. (2014). CBBC: Horrible Histories - World War 1 sketch. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH-X9uWltxY&list=FLuQreTFZJGf1KlFyNAvceIQ&index=1. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.Environment creating advice and tips

Jeff Berry. (2014). Designing 3D Environments: Lights, Camera, Polygons? Action!. Available: https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/tutorials/designing-

3d-environments-lights-camera-polygons-action--gamedev-13910. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.How did they deliver letters to the front

Unknown. (Unknown). How did 12 million letters reach WW1 soldiers each week?. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zqtmyrd. Last accessed 27/04/17.

.War Horse film (War Horse, 2011)

.Fury(Fury, 2014)

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.Saving Private Ryan

(Saving Private Ryan, 1998)

.A higher call

(Makos, 2012)

.Manston spitfire museum.

CHAPTER 2

Literature/Resources Review

Introduction The introduction should be relatively brief, simply providing an overview of the chapter. For example:

A large body of resources (films, web pages, literature, magazine articles, etc.) on the short film, roles of writer, producer and film director, the topic of unemployment and youth crime, professional skills and practices provide a basis for my EXTENDED PROJECT and final short film.

This chapter will present a review of different literature and resources I have consulted for this project and how it influenced my further research, study and development of the final idea for the project. The chapter will start with my Practitioners Report looking at two prominent film directors. It also looks at the magazines and web sources relating to unemployment and youth crime. The chapter concludes with ideas and key conclusion of all resources used in this chapter.

This chapter is important as it will: Tell the reader what you have learnt from previous work/literature/resources and how

you position yourself in relation to previous work in chosen discipline/theme/topic/interest, within which your project is located.

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Provide evidence that you are well informed.

Examine and explore existing media products, practices and ideas in the spirit of creativity and imagination (What makes different media product distinct from one another?). Identify different media projects and other research sources related to your media project. Record and analyse findings. (You can use any media format to record your findings). Answer questions (What? Why? /How? /Look for specific problems and issues (theoretical and practical)/how media product communicates with the audiences/background of the artist and the project).

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Post start –

Life in the trenches.

Why I am researching this topic –

My environment will be built around a ww1 trench theme. In order to create an effective environment setting, I must first understand what I am creating. Looking into how the soldiers lived in the trenches could greatly help me with the aesthetic environment design with things such as personal belongings, paper work, schedules, etc. It could also help me with the mood and visual appearance of the environment. For an example, some parts of the trenches of WW1 were littered with unburied bodies and wounded stuck in no man’s land yelling in pain. Knowing that the environment was going to be made in this setting, I could implement the correct use of audio and alter the colour scheme and lighting to fit the desired setting with the aim of making the player feel a certain emotion like sympathy or sadness.

Research questions –

.1 – What was a day in the life of a ww1 soldier like and what did it include?

.2 – What were living conditions like in the trenches and how did it affect the soldiers?

.3 – How did soldiers deal with boredom?

Research results -

Daily life –

On the Western front, soldiers pretty much lived their own lifestyle. Their day would start an hour before dawn when soldiers were woken up to stand too. Standing too was a daily routine which included soldiers standing guard with fixed bayonets attached as they wait for a possible dawn raid from the enemy. Surprisingly, despite the knowledge that both sides were ready for such an attack, this was commonly the time a raid would be launched. As the sun rose, this was followed by a

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procedure known as “morning hate” which was when both sides would relieve the tension of the dawn stand too by unleashing rifle, machine gun and artillery fire towards the enemy trenches. After the morning hate had finished, the men would then have their breakfast and clean their weapons which worked in shifts where only a few people would be cleaning their equipment at any one time as this made them vulnerable. This was then followed by the daily inspection where the men’s weapons and clothing would be checked. This check would also include a foot inspection to look for signs of trench foot which was a large problem, mainly towards the beginning of the war.

Trench foot was a condition associated with trench life. It is a fungal infection that is caused by cold, wet and unsanitary conditions within the trenches. As soldier’s boots would often be damp and dirty from treading around in the muddy, wet trenched, their feet was where this developed. Trench foot was seen as fairly serious as if it turned gangrenous, it could lead to the soldier’s foot requiring amputation which in turn meant the soldier was no longer fit for duty. It is estimated that around 20.000 British army casualties were suffered because of trench foot by the end of 1914. This problem was looked into and by 1915, it rapidly faded as the trench conditions were improved with things such as duckboard which allowed the water to drain below where the soldiers were stepping. At some points, ladders were also laid across the ground in attempt to keep soldiers feet out of the mud caked ground.

After the inspection, daily chores would then be given out. These chores could range from filling sand bags for cover, repairing duckboard, pumping out the water that had gathered in the trench, digging latrines, etc. This was then commonly followed by “the daily boredom”. Movement around the trenches was restricted to what was essential to maintain efficiency and make organisation of men and supplies easier. Because of this, men who had finished their chores or were not given anything else settled into killing time as they had nothing else to do. These time killing activities would often include things such as reading books and magazines, writing letters to loved ones and friends back home, conversing with your fellow soldiers or getting some extra sleep. Boredom in the trenches could be a soul crushing part of trench life as it gave the men plenty of time to think, worry and develop further anxiety.

As dusk crept into the day, soldiers were then placed at a stand too again just as they were in the morning. This ended when darkness set in and the soldiers were ordered to stand down. This is where the night section of trench life started as the night’s work of repair, resupply and sentry duty started. The repair work would include things like sandbags, trench walls from artillery fire, etc. Sentry duty was kept to no more than two hours per person as tired soldiers would face the risk of falling asleep at their posts. Falling asleep at your post in the trenches was considered as a serious penalty as you were putting yourself, your comrades and your own trench at risk from enemy a surprise attack. This was considered to be such a serious offence that the punishment was often a court marshal and/or death by firing squad.

The night also brought with it the need to patrol no man’s land which was the area between both sides’ trenches. It was aptly named this way because if you climbed out of your trench into this area, you faced an almost guaranteed death sentence from shelling, machine gun fire or a sniper. It was riddled with flooded craters, dead bodies, barbed wire and rubble. During these night patrols, men would man listening posts and send out wiring parties to lay telephone wires for communication. Sometimes a patrolling party would come across an enemy party also patrolling which lead to them having to make a quick decision. Do they fight or simply let them pass. The problem is, if they did fight, it would have to be exclusively hand to hand as any gun fire, flash or loud noise could easily invite machine gun fire from both sides. After this had all be completed, the night had passed and

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dawn was just around the corner, the process would then repeat itself, starting with a fresh days dawn stand too.

Humour -

Through all the shelling, terrible conditions and gunfire, the soldiers found comfort in humour. Finding ways to joke about things and see the humour in the terrible surroundings often gave the soldiers something to smile and laugh about which took their minds off the negativity which tightly surrounds them on a daily basis. This in turn kept the moral up. Magazines printed by soldiers who found type writers and printing presses were widely read by soldiers in the trenches and often contained jokes crafted from the content of their situations and surroundings. One such magazine was known as “The wipers times”, Wipers being army slang for Ypres. This was because the trench based magazine was started in Ypres when a small number of soldiers found an abandoned printing press which they quickly found a very effective use for.

Examples of jokes written –

“Weather report. 8 to 1, light mist, 7 to 2 an easterly breeze and 2 to 1 for chlorine gas.”

“Plot of land for sale, may contain barbed wire. Noisy neighbours on both sides, located in no man’s land.”

It was fairly common that Gallows humour would be heard as well. Gallows humour is when soldiers will make a joke about something sad or grim such as the way one of their comrades died in attempt to lighten the mood in a seemingly hopeless situation. Basically the attempt at forcing a smile in the face of death and destruction to avoid going mad, even though that technically counted as a type of madness itself.

Conditions –

The horrific conditions of the trenches on the Western front were absolutely riddled with disease and rats. The rats were an extremely common sight within the trenches and were reported to sometimes be around the size of cats. They stole food, ate dead soldiers, ran frequently around the men in the trenches and along with the conditions, played a large part in spreading disease which took tens of thousands of soldiers out of duty. Soldiers would often catch and kill as many as they could to pass the time and try to improve conditions but the sheer number of them could not be helped. A main part of the trenches was the appalling smells which were caused by a large mix of sources which included rotting flesh, over flowing latrines, the soldiers themselves, disinfectant, lingering cordite and poisonous gases, the rats and the smell of battle.

.Rotting flesh was a very strong and constant smell within the trenches. It is estimated that one third of allied casualties were sustained in the trenches. The dead would number in the thousands or tens of thousands. It was normally impossible to bury the dead right after a battle which meant that bodies would be left lying in trenches and in no man’s land to rot further. Some had fallen in ditches that had filled up with water, others had sunken into the mud which added to the smell with damp rotting flesh.

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.With the overflowing latrines, digging new ones and filling in the used ones was a common job given to soldiers as chores but after 4 years towards the end of the war, they were running out of space to dig new ones which lead to overflowing latrines massively contributing the smell.

.The soldiers themselves contributed largely to the horrific smell as many soldiers very rarely had the opportunity to bath. This means that commonly, soldiers would go weeks even months without the opportunity to wash or bath.

.Disinfectant was somewhat helpful as it helped prevent disease within the trenches but it smelt very strong.

.Finally, the smells of battle. Along with the smell of gunpowder, lingering cordite and poisonous gas was a contributing smell that would often be a worrying thing to smell. Poisonous gases such as the infamous chlorine gas were devastating and agonising ways to kill the opposition as they triggered a condition called pulmonary edema which is when your lungs fill up with liquid and you slowly drown to death which effectively struck fear into people on both sides. Having the smell of a painful cause of death lingering constantly could be madness inducing.

Food -

With the food side of things, receiving hot food from the field kitchens was a luxury for troops as getting hot food to the front line could often be very difficult when a battle was either immanent or in progress. Towards the beginning of the war, soldiers would receive daily rations consisting of a pound of mean, a pound of bread and half a pound of vegetables. By 1917, this ration plan was cut very short due to the fact that meat was becoming harder to get and because of the U-Boat campaign which cut off British trade routes by attacking merchant ships. The rations were reduced to six ounces of bully beef. Common foods consisted of maconochie stew or hard biscuits. All men were given the same rations but the ranks were always fed before the officers as they would need more energy to work and if needed, to fight but when able, the horses ate before both. There were very little left overs but the waste was sold to local farmers as swill and the drippings were saved for use in creating explosives.

Communications –

A huge advantage within the trenches was communication. Telephones, runners and later on radios. Where telephones were extremely useful for communicating around the trench network, they required the use of wires which were commonly cut, destroyed by shelling or simply destroyed by accident. A large use for telephones was from the forward listening/observation posts to spot for artillery. When it came to repairs, soldiers were never enthusiastic about tracing and repairing breaks in the telephone wires but they knew how important it was as without communication, a commander was in an impossible position as passing vital information and orders around by shouting was risky, ineffective and extremely slow and inefficient. Runners were a commonly used method of communication when telephones could not be relied upon. Runners would do as the name suggests, run. They would brave the bullets and explosions of no man’s land to deliver messages and information to forward positions. Wireless radios gave whichever side used it a leg up in the situation. Radios did not require fiddly, hassle causing wires like telephones did, the allowed rapid communication between two positions and allowed information and orders to be quickly distributed. Seeing the clear advantages of wireless radio technology, it was rapidly developed

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throughout the war becoming a sophisticated and common tool within the trenches towards the end of the war.

End of research post –

This part of my research was very important for my project. I found this research very informative and helpful for the design of my Extended Project. Simply knowing what the soldiers of WW1 did of a day with their daily routines along with knowledge of what conditions they were living and working in has helped me to visualise what it was like for them. I can implement this information and these visualised ideas into the design process to help create a better atmosphere for my Extended Project.

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Practitioners Report

Use Practitioners Report from Unit 12 for this part.

In this chapter, you should present your findings of the media industry and jobs related to your media project.

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Post start –

This is my practitioner’s report where I analysed some inspirations for two games. The

purpose of this task was to show my research ability and show examples of just how

influential some outside sources can be when used as inspiration to create something new

and unique. This project will help me in the planning stage of my Extended Project as it will

help me to display where some of the designs included within the environment are inspired

from.

Original post start -

For Actual write up, scroll down past the videos to "Write up".

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Research choice.

(Bloodborne – 2015) inspiration points -

(Software, 2015)

1) Atmosphere - Dracula. The developer of Bloodborne wanted to convey a similar

atmosphere and feeling of the world to that of Dracula. The idea of blood transfusions and

such were also inspired from Dracula as in the films and stories, blood transfusions were

used to save Dracula's life. The beasts craving blood were also inspired by Dracula's thirst

for human blood.

2) The architecture was inspired by real life buildings and such from areas like Romania and

the Czech Republic. They tried to base everything from the game from real objects and

buildings. They flew around to various countries to gather examples and pictures to help

come up with the setting we now see within the game.

3) The name "Bloodborne" was inspired by disease and how it spreads, aka "Airborne" etc.

This basically means that the disease is within the blood of the patient and is spread by the

infected person’s blood being injected into, or passed onto another person. This makes

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sense with the game as blood transfusions are a very common thing, and the infliction that

has turned everyone into beasts and monsters is within their blood.

4) Quicksilver was used as treatment back when penicillin wasn't available. Quicksilver today

is known as mercury, which is highly toxic. This Quicksilver idea was implemented into

bullets, as these bullets were the only ones that could affect the beasts. Used by the

"healing church" in game, it was an ironic twist to the use of quicksilver.

5) Berserk anime/manga inspired Bloodborne a fair bit, with the setting, monsters, themes

and smaller details. Where it mainly inspired Hidetaka Miyazaki (the creator of dark souls

and Bloodborne) with the dark soul’s series, he still implemented parts here and there

within Bloodborne.

6) The hunters mark. In berserk, the main protagonist Guts brandishes a mark on his neck

that connects him to a nightmarish alternate dimension. In Bloodborne, hunters are marked

with the hunter’s mark, which links them to the hunters dream so that they can return when

they need to.

7) The messenger monsters. In Bloodborne, there are little monster people who help the

player through the game by allowing them to place notes that other players can read. These

little monster people look exactly the same as the monsters that come for one of the

characters in Berserk.

8) The hybrid human great one in Bloodborne looks extremely similar to the hybrid human

hand of god from Berserk. They are also both given birth to by a human woman.

9) Attire, purpose and various weapons in Bloodborne seem to be heavily inspired by a film

called "Brotherhood of the wolf". The threaded cane was inspired by a sword with a similar

functionality within the film and the outfits such as the face covers and hats, along with the

foreigners garb and some of the hunter’s attire looks as if it was taken from the film.

10) H.P Lovecraft was a huge inspiration for Bloodborne. Insight which was used as a sort of

sanity meter in Lovecraft stories goes towards the judgement that writers of these stories

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who claim to have seen the things they write about are not very reliable. The things they

have seen which drive them to suicidal tendencies and mental issues. This idea is brought

across in Bloodborne with the mad man’s knowledge. The mad man’s knowledge is

something that you can use to purchase rare items from a special vendor, but it also plays a

physical role within the game. The higher your insight gets, the more you can see things that

were hidden before. An example of this is with the great ones, which are huge Cthulhu like

monsters. When your insight is low, there is nothing there, but when you gain higher levels

of insight, you can see them scattered around. Insight connecting with the writer point

made earlier is also backed up with the fact that your insight will automatically raise with

every boss you encounter, which backs up the mental issues theory as they player is driven

closer to insanity with each deformed monster they have to fight.

(TerraMantis, 2015)

(Aegis, 2015)

The two videos above are two of the information sources I used for the above research

points. They are very informative and I found them to be very helpful.

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------- Write up. -------

My chosen area of research is atmosphere and environmental storytelling. For my final

project, I would like to create an environment that depicts a story with the condition of the

environment (textures), the lighting, the atmospheric sound and the way things are placed.

Looking further into the idea of atmospheric design and such, looking at areas where H.P

Lovecraft has inspired Bloodborne might help me when it’s my turn to plan and create an

environment of a certain setting.

Great ones -

Firstly, the amygdala. In the game, the amygdala are giant creatures with strange powers.

They are Cthulhu inspired, inhuman looking monsters with strange powers. The meaning

of amygdala is almond, it is also the part of the brain which associate with fear. Fear in a

sense of remembering how to be scared, fearful memories, fearful behaviour and organizing

when to be scared. This fits into the Bloodborne game perfectly as it’s all about monsters,

creatures and darkness. Their heads resemble the shape of this area of the brain, along with

the design being inspired by H.P Lovecraft's Cthulhu depiction.

Architecture -

The architecture within the city of Yharnam, along with the theme and atmospheric setting

was inspired by the old Dracula setting, along with eastern European architecture. Hidetaka

Miyazaki and his team travelled to places like Romania and the Czech Republic to gather

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examples and ideas of how they would make their city. They knew they wanted a

Gothic/Victorian setting and conducted the research necessary. In the end, they ended up

creating the masterpiece that is Yharnam. The dark, gloomy almost horror setting came

from what Miyazaki perceived the setting of Dracula to roughly be. Dark, gloomy, old and

worn setting. This kind of setting is perfect for the imbuing fear into the player as the game

is kind of a psychological horror game.

Berserk -

Another large inspiration throughout Hidetaka Miyazaki's games (mainly with dark souls) is

inspiration taken from an anime/manga series called Berserk. He took inspiration from the

main character "Guts" with his weapon and outfit design. He also based a few of his

monsters, weapons and concepts from things within the Berserk universe. A perfect

example of this is with the way he implemented the amygdala/human hybrid into

Bloodborne. In Berserk, one of the main characters gives birth to a small, deformed creature

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which closely resembles the creature that a character gives birth too in Bloodborne. The

concept of a woman giving birth to these creatures and the fact that they closely resemble

each other is because of the inspiration taken and applied from Berserk. Another clear

inspiration is with one of the enemies in the game. There is a large dog like creature

consumed by fire, this creature heavily resembles the beast of darkness hell hound from

berserk. Another is Logarious and his executioners from Bloodborne, their goal is to hunt

and purge Cainhurst (an area in the game) of vilebloods (people with "corrupted" blood).

One of them also bares a large wheel as a weapon. In Berserk, there is a group just like this

knows as Zealous lord Mozgus and his executioners, whose goal is to rid the world of

heretics. One of them also wield a wheel as a weapon.

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Clothing and theme inspiration -

A movie titles "Brotherhood of the wolf" was another clear inspiration source. When I was

doing my research, I read that this movie was an inspiration source and as a Bloodborne

player myself, I could instantly confirm that just by looking at the cover of the film. The

hunters attire such as the face cover, the hat and the coats they wear are almost identical to

the ones in the game. They also use the same kind of hand guns and such. There is also a

weapon in the movie that is a sword that can split apart and act as a sharp whip. This seems

to have inspired the "threaded cane" from Bloodborne. The weapon appears as a solid, one

piece weapon, but in a flick of the wrist, the weapon becomes a sharp, lengthy whip which

can be quickly retracted back into a one piece weapon again in a second. So style wise, this

movie seems to have been a huge inspiration for a few aspects within Bloodborne's design.

H.P Lovecraft -

Lastly, H.P Lovecraft. Lovecraft's stories were a huge inspiration to the Bloodborne series,

from the theme of the environment and the story lines to the design of the monsters,

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Lovecraft was implemented into a lot of areas. One such example is the "Great ones" which

are large, cosmic beings with god like powers that hold forbidden knowledge. This plays a

huge role in the sanity and insight system within Bloodborne. In H.P Lovecraft's work, he

wrote several eldritch horrors called "Great old ones" with pretty much exactly the same

theme as that the great ones have in Bloodborne. With the nature of the cosmos and the

god like presence of the great ones, it is said that even when they are killed, they never

quite die. When their physical body is killed, their knowledge and insight is passed onto the

killer. The appearance of all of the great ones from Bloodborne was inspired by H.P

Lovecraft's work and depiction of the monsters.

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Who is Hidetaka Miyazaki? -

So here we have a few good examples of where Hidetaka Miyazaki gathered his inspiration

which lead to the development of Bloodborne. But who is Hidetaka Miyazaki?

Hidetaka Miyazaki was born in 1974 and grew up in the city of Shizuoka in Japan. He grew

up very poor but was a keen reader. Since his parent didn't have the money to buy him new

reading material, he borrowed books from his local library, some of which he found difficult

to read because of the complexity of some of the language used. He would use his

imagination to fill in the gaps, this experience is what inspired the soul’s series. He based the

difficulty and feeling of eventual triumph of the soul’s series on his difficulty reading. After

all, to win in the souls series, you have to either be very imaginative or a fast learner. After

he graduated Keio University with a degree in social science, Miyazaki went on to work in

the US, doing account management for the U.S based oracle corporation. In 2001, Miyazaki

started to get into video games, starting with a game called Ico, which is an action

adventure game. This experience caused Miyazaki to rethink his career path and tried to get

a job with a games development company. He found it difficult to find a studio that would

employ him, until he came across "FromSoftware" where he joined the development of

"Armoured core last raven" half way through. He later directed "Armoured core 4" and

"Armoured core for answer". When he learned of the fantasy action RPG that is now knows

as "Demon souls", Miazaki became very excited over the idea and offered to help. The

project was considered a failure by the company before he joined. He said "I figured if I

could find a way to take control of the game, I could turn it into anything I wanted. Best of

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all, if my ideas failed, nobody would care – it was already a failure." When it was finished, it

wasn't received too well until a few months after its release, when publishers outside of

Japan were willing to publish it. After the success of the game as well as its spiritual

successor "Dark souls 1" in 2011, Miyazaki was promoted company president in May 2014.

After the release of the "Prepare to die" version of dark souls in 2012, Sony computer

entertainment approached FromSoftware suggesting the cooperative development of a new

title. This is when the concept of "Bloodborne" came to mind. With both Dark souls 2 and

Bloodborne in development at the same time, Miyazaki had to supervise Dark souls 2's

development whilst working on Bloodborne as he could not work on both at once. After

Bloodbornes release in 2015, Miyazaki returned to the soul’s series to complete Dark souls 3

which released in 2016.

His games focus heavily on deep lore, atmosphere and environmental storytelling, making

the souls series along with Bloodborne extremely immersive and enjoyable games, whilst

maintaining a challenging and very rewarding game play experience.

............................................

(Fallout 4 – 2015) inspiration points.

1, Alternate history - After the Hiroshima nuclear bomb dropped, America set out to harness

the power of nuclear energy in a productive way instead of weaponizing it further. Nuclear

energy became a common power source all over the country for things such as cars, robots

and various house hold appliances.

2, Mid 1900's life style and setting. Mid 1900's America - a seemingly perfect lifestyle and

setting turned nuclear.

3, Science and nuclear physics. The idea of applying nuclear energy in a productive manner

by producing new technology such as robots and various things that we don't even have in

the real world yet would require a lot of thought and scientific integration. Understanding

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robotics, nuclear science and such would be essential for creating an immersive world full of

robots, laser rifles and armour as strong as a tank.

4, A canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M.Miller Jr. - The book that directly inspired the

original fallout games. A monk wondering the desert after the world has been scorched

clean, he finds himself fascinated by all of the things he discovers and exploring into the

remains of the old world. This book inspired factions such as the Brotherhood of steel. The

monks treat pre-war tech like sacred artefacts.

5, The postman by David Brin. - Set in a post-apocalyptic world, one man after having all of

his possessions stolen, takes the uniform and satchel from a dead mailman. He wonders

from settlement to settlement, lying about the government getting back on their feet and

establishing mail routes to start with. The way the settlements were described to be built

from remains of the old world like scrap walls, walling off somewhat intact houses and such

inspired the way settlements were designed. The narrative style is also very similar to the

way fallout is narrated.

6, I am legend by Richard Matheson.

Tim McCain, lead programmer and one of the main designers of Fallout, mentioned this

book as one of the inspirations behind the game. A world taken over by vampires might not

exactly scream Fallout, but the lone protagonist dealing with all those monsters trying to kill

him in a ''post-apocalyptic'' world definitely reminds me of the basic premise.

The feral ghouls in Fallout certainly owe their existence to this novel's weird vampires. The

protagonist being the last man alive is pretty much like the Vault Dweller. He's untouched by

radiation, he's never been traumatized by the nuclear bombs and everything that followed.

He's pretty much the last of his kind, if you ignore every Fallout sequel.

Not that I suppose anyone needs an introduction to this classic novel by Richard Matheson,

but if you haven't picked it up 'till now because you thought it was a vampire novel and not

a post-apocalyptic novel (or vice versa), you've done yourself a disservice. It's a great read

for either audience.

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7, Inspiration themes - post apocalyptic science fiction - (H.G Wells - The shape of things to

come), (Ray Bradbury - There will come soft rain), (Dr strangelove, or how I learned to stop

worrying and love the bomb - This one could have inspired the vault's in fallout). Mad max

1984.

(KyleKallgrenBHH, 2015)

This video is a detailed breakdown of some of the inspirations, meanings and nature of the

Fallout Franchise. It gives an example of just how detailed designing a game or story world

can be.

Todd Howard

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(community, 2017)

Todd was born April 25, 1971 in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania. He developed an

interest and love for computers and games from a young age, he grew up playing games

such as "Wizardry" and "Ultima 3" which were both Role Playing Games. The fact that he

went from playing RPG from a young age to producing in depth amazing ones of his own is

quite inspiring. In 1989, he graduated from Emmaus high school and in 1993, he graduated

from the college of William and Mary where he earned a double major in engineering and

finance. He knew he wanted to create video games for a living, but said he thought the path

he took would be the quickest way through College. His game making adventures started

rough. He requested a job at the Bethesda Softworks he would walk past every day going to

and from school, but was rejected the first time he requested a place because he was told

he needed to finish school first, and a second time one he had finished. In 1994, he was

finally able to get a job at Bethesda Softworks where he worked as a producer and designer

for "The terminator, future shock" and "Skynet". He continued this role working on "The

Elder Scrolls 2, Daggerfall, which released in 1996. He was appointed project leader and

designer for "The Elder Scrolls, Redguard" and "The Elder Scrolls 3, Morrowing" as well as all

of the expansions for it. After this, he led the creation of "The Elder Scrolls 4, Oblivion and all

of the DLC's for it and then went on to become the director and executive producer of

"Fallout 3" which released in 2008. He then returned to the Elder Scrolls Series where he led

the development of "The Elder Scrolls 5, Skyrim" which was released November 2011.

Lastly, Todd directed Fallout 4 which came out November 2015. His and Bethesda's

philosophy for the Elder scrolls series is to "Live another life in another world".

Original post end –

This task was extremely informative as it gave several solid examples of development

stages, using inspirations to create something new, just how influential inspirations can be

in a project and how affective setting and theme mixes can be in creating a great story or

game world. Doing this task will definitely help me in my work to come as it will assist with

inspirations, idea forming and how to apply them affectively. I also found the Fallout

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research interesting and helpful as it shares a similar approach as my project with creating a

new world with a primarily early to mid 1900’s but mixed setting.

Post End –

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

CONCLUSION - Who/what was my inspiration? /Contextualisation of my study

What are similar media products and how is my work related to them? (position yourself in relation to similar media products)

How have similar media products influenced my project? How have they shaped my project? (Thought and action)?

What did I learn from similar media products? (compare similar media products, how it influenced my perspective and ideas for the project – talk about both script and techniques)

Identify requirements for your media project

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CHAPTER 3

Research Design

Introduction

This chapter is ‘How-to’ section of your EXTENDED PROJECT. In this chapter you have to introduce the design of the research, how data was collected.

The introduction should be relatively brief, simply providing an overview of the chapter. For example:

This chapter explains research design for my EXTENDED PROJECT. It starts with research questions and follows by the description of the research design and research methods used in my project.

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CONTENTS


Figure 1- What is Research

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Research Questions

Start with stating the intent of your EXTENDED PROJECT. What are the key aims and objectives of your project? Outline the key characteristics of your project. Write about your questions? You have to base your research design on questions and interests. Ask yourself: “What do I want to find out?” Write to the reader clear research questions, what you wanted to find out?

Figure 2- How to ask good questions

Figure 3 - My exercise 1

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Research Design Evolution

In this chapter, you will expand on what you wrote in your project proposal. Write about what you researched and how you collected your data (research activities). Remember, in this chapter, you will only write what you have researched and what research activities you used. In the next chapter, you will write about your findings, analysis and conclusions. You can write following chapters about findings and analysis using same themes (see below) for the sub-titles.

You can use following research themes as separate sub-titles:

• Subject you are going to research (this will be primary research you conducted; the secondary research about subject will be in literature review)

o This is anything done by you, and it could be such:o Online questionnaire – you could ask your Facebook friends to comment on your

project idea and give you some additional ideas how you can make it better.o Get the feedback from your lecturers and comment on it. o You can contact companies, council, artist depending on what is your project about to

get their opinion on your project idea. o You can use your phone or tablet to research, take photos of possible locations and

places that you can use in your project.

• Target audience

Ask yourself questions: Who? What? Where?

o Who is your target audience? Who are you aiming your product at?o What type of audience is it? Investigate the target demographic and record the type of

media or entertainment they consume. o Where can you find this out? You can use, ‘YouGov Profiles’ site to find out about your

target audience demographic. (secondary)o You can set up interviews or record a ‘Vox Pops’ (primary) to find information about

your audience.

• Skills and techniques

o Come up with the plan of what skills and techniques you will need to research to produce an effective, original and to near professional standard project.

o For example, you can watch tutorials or read about how to achieve specific skills and techniques that you will need for your project (secondary)

o Experiment with range of skills yourself (primary)

• Production research

o Explain what and how:

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o People needed for the production/availability (how: emails, Facebook, Skype conversation, etc.)

o Research production roles that you will need to carry out and how to do it successfully (how: the internet, media books, etc.)

o Production schedule (how: create your own) o Budget (How: secondary internet, primary ask yourself) o Recce research/location needed (how: take images, contact individuals for permission,

etc.) o Health and safety research ( How: take images, check locations yourself, ask for

permission) o Visual ideas (storyboard optional) (How: take images, create sketches, get inspired by

other people ideas, etc.) o Props (how: make a list, ask to borrow, make it, buy it, use what you have)o Production (techniques, hardware, workflow) ( how: research what you need / how:

try it yourself) o Post -production (Edit, colour correction, VFX, etc. ( how: read, watch how other

people/professionals do it, try it yourself)

List all research activities; what activities you conducted to answer your questions and collect the data? Write about the data you collected; your choice of data presentation and how you structured your data analysis.

The research activities should be identified e.g:-

Observations (observational drawings; using photography, video and audio to collect data)

Documents analysis (written, but also video and audio documents) Workshops Interviews Focus groups Surveys (visual, audio, etc.) Experiments Tests and measurements

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CHAPTER 4

Research Findings

In this chapter, you will summarise the collected data and the statistical treatment, and/or mechanics, of analysis. You should start this paragraph by briefly restating the topic/theme of your project (take it from Chapter 1).

Explain the object of each question, research activity, point out results, and present those results in a chosen form of summarised data. Select method of presenting data carefully.

In a quantitative study, the results usually begin with a description of the sample (e.g., sample size, description of participants who were excluded and why, handling of missing data). Next, descriptive statistics (e.g., frequencies/percentages for categorical variables, means, standard deviations, and ranges for continuously measured variables) are presented.

In a qualitative study, the results often include many quotes from participants who were interviewed. Here you should also present your non-textual elements such as photos, videos, audio files, maps, tables, charts, mind maps, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, etc.

Data analysis

What strategies did you use to analyse your data? What did you find out?

Conclusion - How did the research help me with my project?

What did you learn from your research and how it informed your project?

Originate a range of ideas – list all ideas you had and explain how you chose the final idea Analyse each idea for viability - use focus groups and lecturer to support Fill out the project proposal form

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CHAPTER 5

My Project

Introduction In this chapter you should present the level of self-direction, personal initiative and commitment necessary to progress ideas and find solutions, and the practical, theoretical and technical comprehension, appreciation, knowledge and proficiency necessary to achieve identified goals. The ability to plan and organise work within a given timeframe and the efficient production of outcomes both individually and collaboratively.

Pre-Production

Produce Pre-Production Portfolio which will formally define your project (location survey; risk assessment; treatment; script; budget; schedule etc.).

Pitch your proposal to the production board (video recording of your production board presentation)

Analyse your target audience. Investigate the target demographic and record the type of media or entertainment they consume

Production Project management techniques, (notes of team meetings; production and post-

production schedules; call sheets, etc.) Team and individual performance monitoring (weekly check against schedule) Development – Demonstrate development (photos from the shoot, screenshots from

computers). Keep daily production and post-production diary and reflect on your production process.

(Unknown, Unknown)

Post-production Describe post post-production of your project.

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Assess your production and post-production process. Describe, and critically analyses any production problems and the solution you experienced.

Presentation

In this chapter, you should demonstrate the degree of competence and proficiency shown in the organisation and presentation of yourself and your work to an audience. Your EXTENDED PROJECT has to be presented appropriately (effectively; imaginatively) presented with suitable (relevant; purposeful) media conventions to suit the target audience.

Write about what influenced your decision to present your work in a certain way.

CHAPTER 6

MY EXTENDED PROJECT – FINAL PRODUCT

Here present your final EXTENDED PROJECT media production.

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CHAPTER 7

Project Evaluation

Critically evaluating your final media project against the agreed requirements and parameters. Answer following questions:

Introduce the project in your words List five strengths and five weaknesses in your final design Was there a theme for the design ideas? Can you describe it? Can you reference any

influences here? - art movements, designers, media companies/campaigns, etc. What experiments and exploration did you do (what happens if). How did it affect your

development? Find a similar type of design publication - place it next to your own - what

comparisons/difference can you identify? What were the key areas of development in this project? - use your daily reflections to

help you with this Review your proposal - what changed, what developments did you make, did you manage

to complete everything you set out to achieve? What did the client think of your concept? How did that make you feel? What could you do to adapt the work produced to improve and develop it? Is the final work appropriate for the needs of the project? Does it sufficiently answer your

brief? Reflect on your pitch to the board; how did you feel about it before? Did it go better or

worse than you expected? What was the feedback from the client/lecturer? What do you think you could improve next time?

Did it go better or worse than you expected? What was the feedback from your lecturer? What do you think you could improve next time?

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APPENDICES

Extended project in creative media production Learning Outcomes and Assessment

1. Be able to initiate and develop a creative media production project proposal.

1.1. Use critical and contextual perspectives to initiate a creative media production project proposal.

1.2. Use analysis and evaluation to clarify and develop ideas for a creative media production project proposal.

2. Be able to use research, analysis and evaluation to develop solutions for creative media production project.

2.1. Use research to support the development of a creative media production project.

2.2. Use analytical and evaluative skills to develop creative solutions to realise a media production project.

3. Be able to solve practical, theoretical and technical problems in a creative media production project.

3.1. Solve practical and technical problems within a creative media production project. 3.2. Solve theoretical problems within a creative media production project.

4. Be able to plan, organise and produce a creative media production project.

4.1. Demonstrate the ability to plan, organise and produce a creative media production project within an agreed timeframe.

5. Be able to use practical methods and skills in a creative media production project.

5.1. Demonstrate the exploration, adaptation and application of practical methods and skills in the realisation of a creative media production project.

6. Be able to use evaluative and reflective skills in the production of a creative media product.

6.1. Maintain evaluative and reflective records of the development and production of a creative media project.

6.2. Use evaluative and reflective skills to make decisions for a creative media production project.

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7. Be able to present a creative media production project. 7.1. Explore strategies to present a creative media production project.

7.2. Present a creative media production project to a specified audience.

REFERENCES

Make sure you use Harvard referencing. The bibliography should be continuously updated as the project progresses.

(community, Unknown)

(Brown, 2013)

(Bourke, 2011)

(CBBC, 2014)

(Grayson, 2013)

(War, 2014)

(Bishop, 2013)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Textures.com, Unknown)


(Ro, Unknown)


(Unknwon, Unknown)


(Unknown, Unknown)




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(Unknown, Unknown) (Textures.com, Unknown)

(Starak, Unknown)

(Tutorialchip, Unknown)




(Leper, 2014)

(Johnson, Unknown)

(HISTORY, 2014)

(3D, 2015)

(Telegraph, 2014)

(View, 2016)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Cheng, 2008)

(Lucas, 2015)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Unknown, Unknown)

(Wheaton, 2010)

(Unknown, Unknown)

https://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/radio-golden-age/radio-frontlines

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