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Tuesday, 21 January 2014

The Colossus: Structure

My FMP (final major project) I think is a bit ambitious maybe?  It involves a bit of everything but at its core is a presentation of a colossus type creature.  For this there will of course be a colossus (a giant monster made from earth and such), and also an environment, and even a hero character as well.

This will also have structure, with a beginning, middle and end.  There is a standard pop formula I like to think of…  For pop music three and a half minutes with a slow rise in tension/drama, but with a bridge near or after half way.  They may often come back with extra harmonies to exaggerate the chorus.  This is the basic structure to lots of media – but the bride might be a plot twist or a change of location.  For example in Fight Club the bridge or twist was finding out he was both characters.  In Lord of the Rings it is reaching Rivendale or Braunstone or something.  Anyways it’s good to be aware of this stuff.  My favourite was star trek – always two plots which would tie together in the 3rd quarter.  In TV there is a slightly different formula to accommodate for adverts. (heres the first link on google explaining the Hollywood formula)

I will incorporate what should be obvious as height changes, a development in palette, a contrast in pace and information density.  I do want to incorporate a little exploration.  A "trick" is to have everything make sense and work together.  I might need a trigger to kill the boss - I don't want this to be a lever on a wall for no reason.  One of the hardest bits is coming up with a strong idea.

One of the tricky things is tying it all together aesthetically and making it not look like crap.  I have been working a little on presentation and creating render scenes and the like.  Another problem is finding inspirations and filtering out the bad ideas or ones that are hard for me to pull off.

I still haven’t decided on a design for the colossus yet, but check out my pinterest moodboard.  I friggin’ love pinterest – it’s like a decent google images that has been filtered by people’s taste and not a machine – It also honours the original poster by facilitating their links.

I have been making little pixel style thumbs for my colossi ideas.  I did this for a few reasons 1) I love and grew up with pixel art (spectrum 48K>Megadrive). 2) Is a great way to minimize detail and focus on form and silhouette. 3) I will use these as a form of markings/carvings, like a language or something in game. 4) I can use to bolster presentation – ie borders/patterns.

I do luurve pre-historic artifacts and art, or whatever is left of it, and is a big influence for me.  I will most likely incorporate lots of these primal idioms through content, shapes, patterns and feel.

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