Reflection&Feedback: 3D printing

I was lucky to get my 3D printing outcomes today, after 2-3 weeks of waiting I can finally collect my project.

I was satisfied with my end result, as the final product is in the correct size and fine quality.

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This is my second time using Zbrush for coursework, I have developed some new skills during the practice on my own.

I’m designing a doll’s head, that I expected to design a face with a next-generation quality mod, which I have reached this level quality with a high-poly mod.

And this head is designed in a traditional Ball-jointed-doll (BJD) style, inside of the head should be empty for eyeball replacing purpose.

By using the Boolean system in Zbrush enable me to cut a hole inside the head and the eyes.

To resize the model for 3D printing, I have two approaches for it:

Zbrush has its own plug-in for sizing the model under the Zplugin toolbar > 3D print Exporter.
The way I prefer is to use the official software Ultimaker Cura from Ultimaker 3D printer. By using this tool you have more adjustment option for your project.

I have chosen this project as one of my development projects, as I’m enjoying the working process and be able to work on something in real life.

For further development, I would like to make other parts of the doll and then print it out using the different material & printer. (I used SLS printer for this head, I would like to try SLA printer with resin.)

[Project post]

R&E 2018 Annotated bibliography Shiyi Yin

Korkeila, H, Hamari, J, (2018). The relationship between player’s gaming orientation and avatar’s capital: A study in Final Fantasy XIV. In Proceedingsofthe51st HawaiiInternationalConferenceonSystemSciences j 2018. Hawaii, United States, 4 Jan 2018 – 7 Jan 2018. United States: Gamification Group Tampere University of Technology & University of Turku, pp.1893-1900.

This conference paper has given a solid data to draw the relationship between gamer’s playing orientation and their avatar’s status. The author believes the in-game avatar is an alter ego or digitalised personality of the player him/herself, which provides another way to understanding human’s behaviour in the virtual world. This research results carried out with the method of online survey, although there are only 905 English speaking players who participated in this research it can still show the links between different gaming orientation ( discovery, achievement, teamwork..etc) and capital (cultural, economic, social..etc).

Base on this outcome, the game developer can easily identify their target players and to help develop more interesting branch task in the future updating.

Rapp, A, (2017). Designing interactive systems through a game lens: An ethnographic approach. Computers in Human Behavior, Issue 71, pp, 455-468.

The author of this article is looking for inspiration that can create new game interaction systems, he studied the most popular and long-lasting MMORPG World of Warcraft as the source, and he evaluated 9 recommended approach to design the interactive systems. Which are: Identification and empathy, past and future selves, rewards, social presence, self-organisation & friendship, competition, freedom and journey.

This evaluation not only the reference of design inspirations for the interactive system in MMORPG but also working as the motivational factors to affect the player’s in-game behaviours.

In further study and development, by going down this path, it can lead to a new way of game element designing and effecting player’s engagement, motivation and behaviours by encouraging them in a specific way.

Hellman, M. Karjalainen, S. Majamäki, M. (2017). ‘Present yet absent’: Negotiating commitment and intimacy in life with an excessive online role gamer. New Media & Society, volume 19 issue 11, 1710-1726.

In this article, the author shows the concerned about some MMORPG player’s relationship with their friends and family. As this is an problem-focused research, the author mainly concentrated on the negative effect of relationship problem between the gamer’s online and offline life. The author suggests that there are 4 concept paths underpins the relationship: conflicts dimension, changing of prioritise (game is more important than anything else.) deficient communication ( gamer and non-gamer cannot understand each other) and self & autonomy ( the addicted gamer is seen as heightening/ lowering autonomy in wrong life spheres).

But as the author mentioned in the end, this is a problem-focused study, the majority of internet activity cultural and societal feedback are positive.

Hammick, Jin K. Lee, Moon J., (2014). Do shy people feel less communication apprehension online? The effects of virtual reality on the relationship between personality characteristics and communication outcomes. Computers in Human Behavior, issue 33, pp302–310

This study suggests that shy people experience less anxiety in the online virtual world, the virtual world can be a more relaxing and comfortable place for shy people to express themselves, they experienced less communication apprehension and intimidation. Although the virtual world (such as in MMORPG) does not improve their confidence in communication ability, it can still be an approach for them to communicate with people in a more comfortable way.

The author believes the virtual world communication can be less convincing than face to face communication, but it also opens up a new research filed of how online virtual world can help people with communication problems and how online virtual world can be used to different purposes of communication.

Martoncik, M. Loksa, J. (2016) Do World of Warcraft (MMORPG) players experience less loneliness and social anxiety in online world (virtual environment) than in real world (offline)?. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, pp127-134.

Since the online and real world has different functions, this study focused on the player’s feeling in the online and offline environment. The result has shows somehow the two worlds had some similarity in how people communicate and treat each other , but in online world can also provides player who often anxious a comfortable environment to build up friendship (relationship) in high quality, in the MMORPG world of warcraft the majority players feel less loneliness no matter they chose to play with a guild, real-life friends and on themselves, because they can play with people who could share their interest, and some of the players who had preexisting social communication problems can turn to the virtual world and seeking for relationship.

Which this outcome suggests that a good MMORPG (such as WoW) and its gaming environment is highly socialised, encourage the player to interact and cooperate with each other.

Sergio,N. et al (2018). A 3D modelling methodology based on a concavity-aware geometric test to create 3D textured coarse models from concept art and orthographic projections. Computers & Graphics. 76 ,pp73–83.

The author introduces a new method of making 3D models. This method provides a faster and simpler way for 3D artist building up 3D models are also can be considered as fully applicant pipeline for 3D modelling. This method works as the following steps: the concept artist provides concept art in orthographic view. (front, up and side), project onto a grid of voxels, then creating a silhouette of the object, also building the colour texture map based on the concept art. This fully automatic methodology has successfully sped up at the early stage of creating 3D objects.

By using this method in the industry, it can speed up 3D artist’s productivity by almost 31%.

Schatten, M, (2015). Multi-agent Modeling Methods for Massivley Multi-Player On-Line Role-Playing Games. In 2015 38th International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO). Opatija, Croatia, 5/2015. Zagrebu: Faculty of Organization and Informatics University of Zagreb.pp,1256-1261.

NPC and non-playable characters are also important in the MMORPG, this conference paper has shown the process of computer modelling in NPCs and artificial players. This paper has given the reader the blueprint of how the NPC works, and how to improve their interactive ability with the actual player. The author has given some very classic codes sample from those popular MMORPG games and explained how the code functioning by attach them one by one. Those agent-based modelling techniques can allow game developer understand what’s happened inside of the MMORPG and how the NPCs, bots and AI player works, and their behaviour that will impact the actual gamer.

Christian, K & Wolter, P. 2017. Game mechanics and technological mediation: an ethical perspective on the effects of MMORPG’s. Ethics and Information Technology. 19(2), pp. 81-93.

This is an ethical discussion about how MMORPG and its continuously expanding virtual world/story line. The author suggests that what makes the MMORPG different with other video games is there is never a real ending for it, and game designer without ethical responsibilities can leading players to game addiction, then affect their real-life quality in physical and psychological ways. The author mentioned in this paper, some of the game designers are trying to keep player spending time with their game as long as possible, which is understandable as I’m a game art student but without the ethical bottom line, the game (MMORPG) will not be successful.

Wei Jin, Yongqiang Sun, Nan Wang, Xi Zhang, (2017) “Why users purchase virtual products in MMORPG? An integrative perspective of social presence and user engagement”, Internet Research,Vol. 27 Issue: 2, pp.408-427

The key findings and result of this paper show two aspect explains why gamers spend their money on the virtual product. On the technology aspect, the game’s purchase intention is depends on tow factors: game satisfaction and attachment between he/she and other gamers. Once the gamer is satisfying with the game, he/she will be interned to purchasing the in-game product and the product will provide a better user experience. In the gamer’s side, if a gamer has a strong bond with his/her guilt or team, the gamer will tend to spend more (money or time) in the game.

By using this result, the designer will have a much clear idea about how to improve & design the game to improve gamer’s intention of purchasing the virtual product.

Young, G & Whitty, M (2016). Cyberpsychology: The Study of Individuals, Society and Digital Technologies. (1 ed.). UK

This book gives a brief overview of a new research field in psychology, by understanding the psychological theory behind the phenomenon ( for example: why people choose to be anonymous, why people getting addicted to internet) game designer can improve their game in a more efficient way, because the interaction between players is what’s makes MMORPG so unique. This book explains in a board range of people’s online behaviour in the different field of the internet (for example online dating, social media) which might be directly inherited into MMORPG.

I think this book gives me a better understanding of why and how people behave in a certain way on the internet, and with some real-life examples to make it more persuasive.

Inspiration & evaluation for colour theory used in my works.

I will talk about the use of colour and the theory behind it as a reflection of my practical project; technical wizardry. This post contains my working methodology and some digital painting technique that I discovered.

Brightness

Brightness is one of the most important elements that define the composition in a piece of drawing, the object’s layout, light&shadow and the geometry relationship. So we often start a painting from a grayscale sketch. this technique is called Grisaille, has been widespread in the 19th century.

In my case, I also recommend using this method as the start of the painting. AS in the early stage, the most important things is to get the composition and the relationship between light&dark correctly.

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In this painting, I have placed the character in a backlight position.

Colour constancy & environmental light

To make your painting interesting, you need to learn how to dealing with the colour constancy. Everybody has the common sense of “The sky is blue, the roses are red”, and this stereotype is the main cause of the boring colour combinations. To solve this problem, the only ways is to observe the natural world, an example: the skylight is the main factor that affects the colour that you observe, but you might not notice that during early morning the skylight (sunlight) is yellow, during the daytime is blue, and in the evening is red/orange.

Thanks for modern technology, we don’t have to work out what colour that you see is under which type of skylight (think about the Gold or Blue Dress Quiz, it can be very confusing).

Adobe Photoshop can complete the process for us, just by adding one layer of “skylight” colour with the [multiply] blend mode. (layer>layer style>blending option)

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Colour Wheel and HSB colour system

The colour wheel has been first introduced by Issac Newton in his book “Opticks” in 1704, he rolled the spectrum around in a circle, to make the relationship between each colour more straightforward. Base on this colour theory, people have invented many different colour systems (e.g. Lab, RBG, CMYK) but I like the HSB system the most.

5b91aec8-a5cc-4b40-b902-723ea0050a68-foundations

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Give a better example in actual software:

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For some recommend drawing technique on drawing highlight and shadow by using this colour system:

Always adjust the Hue value a little bit, rather than only adjusting the Brightness value to create the light and shadow effect.

you can see the difference between only adjusting the Brightness value and adjusting both B and H value.

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I have done two drawings using the above methods for the same character, I hope you can feel the difference.

阿星的头像

(Only adjust the brightness value)

阿星头像2

(Adjust the hue and brightness value)

Reference:

[1]Newton, I., 1730. Opticks:: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. 1st ed. Oxford University: William Innys at the West-End of St. Paul’s.,

Critical Analysis

Christian, K & Wolter, P. 2017. Game mechanics and technological mediation: an ethical perspective on the effects of MMORPG’s. Ethics and Information Technology. 19(2), pp. 81-93.

This extract I have chosen is from the journal article “Game mechanics and technological mediation an ethical perspective on the effects of MMORPG’s”by Christian Klemm, a graduate student from TH Köln, and Wolter Pieters from Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, who has published many articles associated with technological mediation and information ethics. The original article is published in the Ethics and Information Technology journal as referenced above.

The author suggests in this extract, that MMORPG have many negative effects on players, the most obvious and straightforward is the game addiction. Once a person is addicted to the games, it will cause personal physical (hygiene, diet) and psychological health problems (social connection, isolation). They suggested that the main reason for causing MMORPG addiction is the motivation & rewarding system of the game.

Although in the chosen extract it has listed a few pieces of evidence and study of research, the resources are out of date, the most recent one they use is from 2013, and is a newspaper resource with less academic reliability. Which means the majority of the examples given in the extract to support the author’s idea will not be relevant for now. As the game industry is one of the fastest evolving fields, the game & gaming system people played 10 years ago might be very different from now in comparison. Also in the past 10 years, the industry has gradually developed their game industrial ethical awareness, to make sure the present game is attractive but at the same time helps to avoid addiction. For example, almost all games in China have “anti-addiction system”, the system will detect if the player is online for more than a period of time, once the player has reached the maximum playing time per day, the players in-game income (e.g. money, XP) will automatically be halved, therefore the player knows that is time to stop playing.

The author suggests that MMORPG addiction can even cause death, the author found this information in a newspaper report, the report uses aggressive language to convince the reader, makes it less impartial, and it provides no evidence to show the direct link between game addiction and player’s death. Continue to the physical health discussion, we all agree that being inactive long-term is bad for your health, but currently some VR games ( e.g. lightsaber) and Wii game (e.g. Wii sports club) allow you to play & stay active at the same time. MMORPG is not the only or the main cause of SHS (suboptimal health status) as diagnosis can be complicated. In the modern world, people are getting less active than before, even if they are not playing games (MMORPG in particular) they will set in the sofa and watching TV, ending up with the same result.

In another hand, neuroscientist Marc Palaus (2017) has recently published a systematic review for 116 published articles associated with effects of video/online gaming on the brain. In fact, their findings show gaming not only stimulating different brain area transiently but also can develop & cause long-term growth in a certain area of the brain. For example, extensive gaming increases the entorhinal cortex and the right hippocampus’ volume, which improves the spatial memory and navigation performance, even have a positive impact on problem-solving ability as well. Also, the research done by Stockdale & Coyne in 2018 suggest that simply spending lots of time playing games/doing other hobbies is not evidence of an addiction.

On the mental health side, the author wants to convince us that game addiction is associative with higher anxiety & depression rate, which could be considered inappropriate to use this research result to show that game addiction leads to the mental health problem, because the extract does not provide evidence that game addiction can cause mental health problems, nor does it consider that the people who have mental illness are more likely to become addicted to games. Hence is very difficult to identify that game addiction I the cause of academic, health, relationship problems, or people became addicted to the game after they hit a rock in their lives.

Other research conducted by Daniel Loton in 2016 discovered that game addiction is more likely to occur when people are depressed and stressed by something else; people are trying to avoid their negative emotion rather than coping with it – apparently, if gaming is not an option, they will become addicted to something else. This reflects the idea that game addiction is caused by the pre-existing anxiety and depression, not the other way around as the extract suggests.

As the example given by the extracted author, the motivation method can let a shy person in real life became a guild leader in the game. Is it a cause of addiction or is it a positive way to encourage people to be confident? From my own experience, MMORPG really turns me into a more confident person than before, as I look at the MMORPG as a“rehearsal” of real life.

In conclusion, I would like to see more proof evidence and more in-depth research to clarify the relationship between game addiction with the health problem, also I think the author needs to make the term“ game addiction clearer rather than quote Yee’s definition of drug addiction. I partly agreed with the author’s idea that spends a long period of time in one single activity, which has a certain negative effect on health and by reading through the whole article, I found that the motivation system design and social behaviour studies are very useful for me to develop my MMORPG in the future, and I partly agree with the author’s idea of the rewarding system can causing immersion in games (but not addicted).

Ref:

Loton, D. et al. (2016). ‘Video game addiction, engagement and symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety: The mediating role of coping.’ International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, [online] 14, 565-578.Available from: url [accessed: 19 Nov 2018]

Palaus, M., et al (2017). Neural basis of video gaming: A systematic review. Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, 11, article 248.

Stockdale, L., & Coyne, S. M. (2018). Video game addiction in emerging adulthood: Cross-sectional evidence of pathology in video game addicts as compared to matched healthy controls. Journal of Affective Disorders, 225, 265-272.

Reflection: Music and Animation in Games

Back to my old playground, 2D concept art. As my usual working pipeline, I started with analysis the colour combination that I’m using, the reason of starting with the colour is in many games especially in MMORPG, the new skin /costume updating every season are expecting to have the same theme, usually can be identified with colour & style. The colour is an easier way to start with as it creates the mood.

Some of my previous work of character costume design has more detail, contains front and back, also the section that allows players to edit ( e.g. the clothes dying system in-game.)

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(my previous work on character design)

When I decide the theme of colour and what clothing style I’m going for, I was trying to look deeper into music. I would like to design something more than music but has another layer of connection with music, the inspiration I found is from the musical and opera.

In MMORPG and other games, character costume design is very popular to borrow the characters’ image from famous fiction/story and adapted in the game character as an alternative version. For example, the Overwatch Roadhog Halloween skin has used the Frankenstein as an inspiration.

For some further development, I will add more details to my design, including the front&back look of the costume, detailed character hair design, their approximate height and many more.

[Project post]

Reflection: Light and Shadow

To be honest, this project is the most simple project for this semester so far. That we have been given a guide on how to do it and we don’t have to work on our pre-existing knowledge.

The lighting tutorial has been given during the lecture by Mark (our tutor), and the sample template can be downloaded from the Unreal 4 official website. I haven’t experienced any difficulty during my working process, and I’m happy with my final outcome.

This is the second time that I work with Unreal 4, with a better understanding of this software I have been able to combine different lighting system in one map without disturb between each lighting.

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For further development, I would like to create my own environment and set up the lighting. However, there is not enough time for this week and I have to stop there.

Also, remember the importance of light map and UV can affect the lighting as well in Unreal 4, but I have to learn more about 3D modelling & material before I can start to learn about unwarp UV and UV layout.

[Project post]

Reflection: Memories and Nostalgia

This is one of my favourite projects, in this project we have been asked to working about our childhood memories. There are a lot of things that we can work with (e.g. environment, level designing), but I would like to try something different with last week. I start to think about what means the most to me during my childhood, a place? a game with my friends? a TV program I have watched? And finally, I have decided to make a “Childhood land” with my favourite toy —— Miss Bunny.

I also want to try some new software and a new working method for this time. Again I would like to work with 3D because this is my weakness and I have to practice it. ( actually, my other colleagues are working with 3D, as a 2D concept artist I felt very odd in my class)

The software I’m using is Maya, I had some experience in using the 3D software Metasequoia ( it’s working like a simpler version of Maya.). I began with simple shapes, but there is one thing I should notice when I work with Maya, the number of columns is better to stay in an even number, that makes the process easier after (cut in half, and mirror it).

Another technique which good to use in Maya is: start as simple as possible.

For example: 20181210010856

Always thinking about the extrusion probability for faces & line rather than adding more 3D objects. And if the object you working with is an axisymmetric object, you can just delete a half of it then duplicate — mirror transform in the end.

I also found a new technique to working on more details in a model, as we know if we keep the model in low-poly, we are unable to add very fine detail to it. The solution is to import this object into Zbrush and adding details by using different Zbrush brushes.

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I have added her eyes&nose, palms and seam line in Zbrush.

In the end, I want to introduce the Zbrush poly paint tool, which can help the user colouring their model quickly.

[Project post]

Reflection：Places of the Mind [2]

Part 2 of the project I decided to try something new, I have looked at many video games and MMORPGs which has sculptures as a part of their environment art.

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( The art of Alice madness return. page 79)

images

(Revelation online: The Sulan City)

I would like to start from the basic —— sculpting a head in Zbrush, this is my first time using Zbrush as I’m usually working with Photoshop and other 2D software. I found an essential training lesson in Lynda.com, and understand the basic Zbrush workflow.

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Once I have understood the basic technique of Zbrush, I can start the sculpting. I know the human facial structure very well so to make a start is not a problem for me.

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(my first head sculpt)

Due to the time consuming, I do not have time for adding texture but I don’t want to leave this model at this stage. Then I realise I can use the gradient map tool in Photoshop, then I took a screenshot and use the same technique in part [1] to add some colour & texture for this screenshot. (it is no longer a 3D model but still a piece of good illustration.

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[Project post]

Reference:

[1] Lynda.com – from LinkedIn. 2018. ZBrush 2018 Essential Training. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.lynda.com/ZBrush-tutorials/ZBrush-2018-Essential-Training/441596-2.html?srchtrk=index%3a1%0alinktypeid%3a2%0aq%3azbrush%0apage%3a1%0as%3arelevance%0asa%3atrue%0aproducttypeid%3a2. [Accessed 16 Oct 2018].

[2] Berg, R., 2011. The Art of Alice: Madness Returns. Dark Horse Comics.

[3] NetEase,. 2015. Revelation Online. avaliable at: https://ro.my.com/en/about

Reflection：Places of the Mind [1]

This project I have worked with 2 different approaches because I really want to explore the new technique and learn new software.

The first approach is art/illustration, as drawing is something that I familiar with. But for this project, I have tried some different working method.

My usual working method is:

for environmental art / illustration I usually start with swatches, this helps me to decide what kind of mood I’m going to illustrate. (I looked at Hiroshi Senju’s work as inspiration.)
(my swatches for the environment illustration)
Once I decide the swatches and the mood, I will try to add more colour between them. What I like to do is picking the colour by using the colour wheel, usually use the colour next to my chosen colour, clockwise or anti-clockwise.
But for the last painting (the oyster), I used a different approach. I started by only sketch the shape and shadow with black & white.
In photoshop there is a tool called “Gradient map” which is an alternative way to adding colours into the black & white image, during my working process I had look at electorillusion’s work, I liked her way of using iridescent colour is more creative and active compare with Hiroshi.
In this illustration, I found a very unusual material for my colour reference: cross section of iron under the microscope, I took this photo from the physics lab during my BSc degree.
The end result：

[Project Post]

Reference:

[1]exhibit-e.com. 2018. Hiroshi Senju Studio. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.hiroshisenju.com/. [Accessed 09 Oct 2018].

[2] Tumblr. 2018. Tumblr-electroillusion. [ONLINE] Available at: http://electroillusion.tumblr.com/.[Accessed 09 Oct 2018].

Reflection – Red VS Blue [Feedback & further development ]

After complete this project, my feedback from the class was positive, but my tutor also pointed out there are a few things I need to improve:

recreate the platform design: I spend the majority time on designing and creating characters. The simple music notes design looks too cheap.
redesign some of the Unreal blueprints, as I designed this game as a multiplayer game ( 2 characters can be controlled by WASD and ↑↓←→). But the default sample file from Unreal 4 is a single player game, to spawn 2 characters and have control to both of them, I actually took the idea from a 2D fighting game tutorial by Wazza Tuts. The result of that is my character are always facing each other.

To solve the above 2 problems, I might have to start the project from the beginning, because my blueprint already look a bit messy, and I need to understand how the blueprint works exactly, not just following the tutorial.

Also, in the end, there is a very interesting Devlog on YouTube by Resurrection 21 helps me with theme setup and adding more drama to my game in future development. I will definitely get back to this Devlog if I will choose this project as one of my development projects.

[Porject post]

ref:

WazzaTuts. 2017. Unreal Engine 4 2D Fighting Game Lesson. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzv4xVEImKE. [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].

Resurrection 21. 2017. #1 Detailed devlog/tutorial – 2D Sidescroller – Unreal engine 4. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooEhCuPClww&t=1369s. [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].