Perspective project

 

My next digital project is all about perspective, specifically 1 point, 2 point and 3 point. Perspective is a crucial piece of knowledge that I must have in order to create good quality and convincing pieces of environment concept art and can also be applied to other areas such as character design. My aim throughout this process was to build up a solid understanding of how to tackle complicated perspective pieces. I want to be able to build on my current skills and be able to think in a more perspectively accurate way and to make use of grids to help me come up with interesting compositions. 

One Point perspective

To begin learning about how to construct an environment in perspective accurately, I first blocked out some Notan landscapes. With these Notans, I will be moving forward and creating a one point perspective set up environment. This part of the design workflow really helps with being able to come up with a visually appealing and good layout for an environmental concept and creates a solid iterative process that will allow for the best design outcome as possible. I found that drawing the Notan designs helped me to get down ideas for big shapes and silhouettes quickly, in order to choose one and start building up a strong concept. I focused on what kind of shapes were in each quarter of the rectangle and how the eye would be drawn through the piece itself. I tried not to think too much about the narrative at this part of the process and just get a good basis to build up in. Blocking out black and white shapes was challenging, as it was tempting to keep adding in lots of detail; however, this step was important, to get a good aesthetic composition before adding any details. The Notan method was something I had never tried as part of a conceptual workflow before; however, I think it is a vital part of creating a strong environment piece. I did 15 different ideas which I will then be taking forward and selecting a few to build up more tonal range and start adding some deeper narrative. I tried to stick with a running theme of stone arches throughout my Notans as this is an asset I knew I wanted to have as part of my one point perspective element. 

After picking out a selection of Notans of which I liked the distribution and composition best, I added some more value to them to create a more narrative and flowing concept. I made sure to keep in mind elements of a good design by considering how the eye would be lead through or around the scene. As this first part of the project is to build skills on one point perspective, I will need to consider picking one which will showcase my ability to use one point in my work. When adding tonal value, I considered the perspective of the element and how that would affect its tone. For example, anything close up to the viewer would appear dark and objects further away would get lighter. This creates a sense of depth in the piece and also allows for a good story telling element as the eye will naturally follow through the composition. In this part of the workflow, I thought about adding some smaller details such as wires, stone pathway detailing and a general sense of what kind of environment this is going to be. Once I had finished developing the ideas based on my Notans, I picked one of these ideas which I liked most and developed it with further details. 

For my final one point perspective piece, I chose to develop this one as I really liked the kind of atmosphere and place I had created using the previous Notan task. I liked how the eye looked through the stone archway in the centre and down a river with ornate looking houses either side. I can image that this environment could be an abandoned town or a ghostly outcast village in a mountainous area. I created a futuristic vibe by adding some rings and wiring along with a sign saying, 'Beware', which could contribute to the narrative of the piece and set the atmosphere more. In addition, I added some highlights and shadows to distinguish a clearer lighting source. Through the process of drawing my final piece, I used a one point perspective grid which I created using Photoshop so that all my assets would follow the correct lines and go to the correct vanishing points. I made a horizon line and established the vanishing point based on the composition I wanted to make. The vanishing point goes more or less through the centre of the piece. 

2 Point perspective

For this piece, I had to establish a 2 point perspective set up and render in a basic amount of detail to create a narrative concept. I feel that, given more time, I would spend longer planning this. There are elements of this concept which I think could be improved, and after some feedback, I changed my 2 vanishing points so that my building didn't look as compressed in the middle of the set up. I found that it looked a lot better to have the vanishing points quite far away from each other as this creates a wider and more fish-eye viewpoint to the concept. I made sure that I took each element to the correct vanishing point to create this 2 point perspective idea. I wanted to do an urban cityscape, so for my assets and details I added neon signs and banners which also help with the story telling element. My vanishing points are offset this time to create a more dynamic and interesting layout. I added some basic tonal values; however, I would have liked to further refine these to create a little bit more depth into it. This piece was good practise for being able to draw in 2 point perspective and to understand how to create the set up for it.   

3 Point perspective

For my main perspective brief, I had to create a 3 point perspective interior setup with a concept and theme of my choice and a clear lighting set up. Before starting the actual drawing, I collected a range of reference images from the kind of theme I was going to choose. I decided that, for my lighting set up, I was going to go for big gothic stained glass windows with moonlight shining through. I was also going to contrast this very cool light with some warmer tones so I collected images which had candles and red wallpaper and other warm toned assets. I liked the idea of having the contrasting light sources to add a sense of dynamic atmosphere to the piece. In my 3D module project I was modelling a gothic fireplace and I really wanted to link this project into that by creating a narrative for it. Therefore, I incorporated my design of the  bat winged fireplace into my asset sketches as I thought it would be a nice idea to add a wider story line and concept to it. I quite liked the idea of having some gothic living room elements such as a leather sofa, some books and potions along with a coffin to really push the gothic side of it. The images on my reference board will help me when I begin drawing out my compositional ideas. I also established a colour palette for this, using these images; I would use a range of gold tones and reds. 

To further develop a strong baseline for my concept I did some quick Notan panels of different compositions and added in some of the assets which I had researched in my reference board. I added a window to each one, as stated previously, to act as my moonlit light course, along with wooden doors and any other fitting ideas I had researched. This part of the process allowed me to quickly get down some iterations and to ensure that my process went smoothly and successfully. It also meant that I could express good compositional skills and think about how the eye would go through the scene to create an interesting and clear narrative for a game. I chose to move forward with the second idea as I liked the wide angle and amount of different assets that were added into it. These iterations were not drawn in accurate 3 point perspective; however, moving forward to sketching out my final piece, I will be using a 3 point perspective grid to get an accurate drawing. For 3 point perspective, I chose to have the viewpoint facing down over the top of the room so as to capture a lot of different angles and assets into the set up. I would like to have spent longer on this part of the process as, when creating my Notans for my one point perspective, I was able to really develop and pick a solid idea to take forward. Next time, I will consider my time management for the project so that I leave a good amount for time for my iterative workflows. 

On Photoshop, I made a 3 point grid and started sketching out my design for the interior using the previous iterative concepts I had sketched out. I made sure to accurately draw assets to the correct vanishing points at this stage. As I built up details, I realised that there were some slight errors I had made, so I rectified these before starting my rendering process. Using 3 point perspective was challenging as there were a lot of different things that I needed to think about in order to make an accurate attempt at it. I had to consider the 3 vanishing points and my horizon line throughout the process of sketching. It was a challenge to be able to think in this way as I was used to only using 1 and 2 point in the past. 

After establishing a basic sketch and making some adjustments to the angles, I started blocking out the basic lighting scenario for my scene as established through my iteration stage at the start of the project. I quickly blocked in some grey scale tones so that I could look at how it was going to be distributed through the room and how it would hit certain places more intensely. I also started to build up some flat colours using my reference images and colour palette, really focusing on the contrasting purples and reds. 

Once I had finished the rendering process, I wanted to make some adjustments to the colour of the piece, just to add a clearer overall atmosphere to the concept. I have also included a greyscale version of the piece so the different tonal values can be seen and how I had distributed elements of light and shade. I experimented with warmer and coolers of the piece; however, I decided to go for a middle ground as I found that the warmer version looked much too saturated and the cooler version made the palette look too murky and dark. 

Finally, using levels, I adjusted the lighting of the piece and also did some iterations to this to better support the narrative of the concept and to highlight areas of more intense light and dark. These steps were important in my workflow process in order to get the desired narrative aesthetic and really set a scene for a possible modeller to use, if this were to be made into an environment for a game.

This is my finished piece for the 3 point perspective task. In this project, I really focused on creating a dynamic and interesting atmosphere whilst adhering to the 3 point perspective practises. There was a lot to consider when implementing this and it was a challenge to be able to draw all the more complicated assets such as the chair and fireplace to fit the composition correctly. There are elements that I can see which aren't completely accurate and I will need to further practise 3 point development; however, I am pleased with the concept as I worked very hard on it. This project really pushed me to explore the power and usage of the different types of perspective drawing and how they might be useful in game development pipelines. I would like to have spent a little bit more time rendering my scene as I do think it is missing some detail, in order to further refine the textures of each material. In conclusion, in this project I have gained valuable skills and an understanding of the use of perspectives and how you can gain different effects from each one.