Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTec Level 3Extended Diploma in Creative Media ProductionGames Design

Unit 78 – Digital Graphics for Computer GamesHA2 – Transformation Production Log

Name Amy Brockbank

Date: Monday 10th November 2014

On this day, I gathered images to use in the background of my final image. These images included images of damaged buildings and grey skies that I could layer together to create the background for my image. I copied and pasted these images onto a Photoshop image, and made sure that I cited all sources of the images below each image using the text tool

During this stage, I gathered more images than I needed, so if any particular images didn’t quite work, I could swap them around until I find a combination that fits.

Date: Tuesday 11th November 2014

On this day, I put a selection of the images together onto what will be the background of my image. I kept the background rather simple, as I will be tracing around it later, and didn’t want to risk adding too many complicated buildings to the image, which would create more work for me, and take attention away from my main character. However, I still wanted to maintain an abandoned, broken feeling with the buidlings, to give a better idea of what sort of world my character lives in.

Date: Wednesday 12th November 2014

On this day, I took photos of myself in various poses so I could then layer them onto my background. I experimented with these photos, taking various shots in various ways. Some shots I had my hood up, some I had my hood down, and in a few I decided to add silver eyeshadow to my face to make it look as though it had been partially torn away, although due to the resolution of the camera, this wasn’t all that noticeable on the final photos, so I will add this effect into the vector version of my image.

Date: Thursday 13th November 2014

On this day, I began to edit one of my photos to place onto my background. I did this by taking away the background in one of my photos. This was one of the photos where my face had eyeshadow on it, although it doesn’t show up all that well, so I will add that particular detail to my character’s face when tracing the image in Illustrator instead.

Here, I cut out the chosen image of myself using Photoshop. I erased the background from this image by using the eraser tool, although, I did run into difficulty with this stage due to the resolution and lighting conditions of the photos, as some colours in the background merged into one another, making it hard to

I picked this one!

distinguish what was the background, and what was my hoodie.

To cut out the photo after I had erased the background, I used a combination of the quick select to pick out the larger areas, and the magic wand tool to pick out smaller areas that were harder to pick out with the quick select tool. I didn’t run into too much trouble with this part, as the difference between the colour of the background, and the image of me was clear.

I also found that, although the buildings look simple enough, I will add some enemies behind me too, as the background looks a bit empty.

Date: Friday 24th November 2014

On this day, I decided to finish my amalgam by adding robots into the background, so the artwork gives more of a sense of what the game is actually about and what the player will face in the game.

I did more research into images on the internet and began to compile a Photoshop document containing the different images. I have collected. I found three images of robots that I would consider adding to the final background. Some of the robots don’t look too threatening, but I hope to fix that in the vector version of the image by changing colours and positions around. I tried to keep the robots I picked fairly simplistic in design, so they could be traced easily, and don’t take too much attention away from my character

After I had gathered all the images together onto one document, I decided to edit each robot to make them look slightly different by using changing the ‘Hue/Saturation’ option, so telling each robot apart when tracing the vector image is slightly easier.

I then layered the different robot images into the final amalgam, which I can now begin to trace using Adobe Illustrator to create a vector image. In this image, I will trace the sky first, then the buildings, then the robots, and then me, so I won’t have to play around with the order of layers later on, as everything will be in the correct order.

Date: Monday 17th November

Today, I finally began to start my vector image using Adobe Illustrator. I took the amalgam I put together using Photoshop and pasted it into an Illustrator document. I then organised my first set of layers, planning to name them after the sky, each of the buildings, each of the robots, and finally me.

Shortly after I had planned out my layers, I decided not to use sublayers, as they only made the project harder to manage, so I quickly changed to normal layers to arrange my different elements.

After I had organised my layers, I began to start on the sky in the background. Here, I used the pen tool to get the curved lines of the clouds correct. I used four different shades of grey for the sky, taken from the original image using the eyedropper tool.

Over all, I’m not entirely keen on the sky at this stage, I will finish the rest of the image, then revisit the sky if I’m not entirely sure.

Again, using the pen tool, I created the buildings that feature in my amalgam, and layered them over the sky background that I have created. I used no curves on the buildings, and used completely straight lines to make them look like tall apartment blocks. I arranged the different elements of the buildings using different layers.

Today, I also started work on one of the robots that are in the background. Again, to draw the robot, I used the pen tool. This time using a combination of curves and straight lines, as I didn’t want the robots to be totally clear, as they are only background detail, like the buildings

Date: Tuesday 18th November

Today, I finished off drawing around the robots, finishing off my background. I drew around the robots the same way each time, using the pen tool to create curves and straight lines around the robots on the template, until I had traced around all four.

Here, I began to trace my own face and neck with the pen tool. I used mainly curved lines at this stage, as my character is meant to be the main focus of the artwork here, it is important to put as much detail as possible into this part of the artwork. I made part of the neck slightly darker than the face or the rest of Project A’s Face, as this is where the shadows lie.

I then used the pen tool to trace my hair. Although, I used curves more than I did straight paths, to make the hair look softer, and less edgy. I also used the pen tool to trace Project A’s eye, although I mainly used straight lines here, to get the lashes and eyelids correct on her face. I also added lips, and made them the same colour as her hair. I used the pen tool to draw them, and used mainly curved lines.

I used the pen tool again to add yet more detail to Project A’s face. I added shadows and light to her face, and some detailing where part of her face had come away, again, to do this, I used the pen tool, and mainly used straight lines; however, when doing some additional detail where part of her face had come away, I used lines in blue and red to create some circuitry. When doing this, I held down the shift key to make the lines completely straight.

Here, I created Project A’s outfit. Although, in the original photo, my hoodie was black and white, I decided to change the hoodie to different shades of blue depending on where the shadows were. I also changed the vest top to purple, dispite it originally being black.

Here, I added additional detail into Project A’s hair, adding shadows where there should be, as well as light patches where the light falls. I used the pen tool to do this, using mainly straight lines to trace the shadows and light.

Date: Thursday 20th November

Today, I finished off my character’s design. I made the rip in Project A’s face slightly darker grey, to differentiate it from the rest of her face. I also added slightly more detailing to the hood on her hoodie, and made her bottom lip slightly darker to give more of an impression of shadows.

After much consideration, I decided to limit the sky to two colours, as I think 4 different shades of grey make the background look too busy, and took attention away from the main character, and looked a bit messy for my taste.

Here, I created the logo/title of my game, which I have chosen to call ‘Project A’, after the main character. I used the font ‘Courier New’ to create my game’s logo, to give it a simplistic look. I also used the pen tool to create blue lines coming from the text, to give the appearance of circuits. I used blue to give the logo an electric look.

Decided to make pen strokes on the circuit design look slightly darker, as they didn’t show up particularly well on the screen. I Also increased the stroke size, as I thought the straight lines should be more visible.

Here, I changed the title to a light grey colour, as most of the background is dark grey, I knew that the text may show up better on the sky.

Here, I positioned the title of my game in the correct place, just above the left building, which is where the text appears clearest, so people can actually read the text when it is on the game box.

Here, I put my game onto a PS3 jewel case template. I designed the back by live tracing the original sky image that I used in my original amalgam, to turn a raster image into a vector image, and placed that on the back cover, along with one of the robots I traced from the front cover, just to make it look slightly more interesting. I also used the shape tool to create the spine of the case, making it a solid shade of grey, so the title of my game shows up better when on it’s side.