Aamina Khan MA Games Design

Due to illness I have been unable to post here recently, however I will recap on the work I managed to do in the past 2 weeks.  Firstly, I have been developing upon my 'street view' of the South Asian fantasy world. I believe in the terms 'South Asian' and 'fantasy' there is a heavy emphasis on the colour used in order to make these terms believable. Fantasy is to push the boundaries of reality into the surreal, and I believe it is my role to create a convincing fantasy to the viewer. I have started to do this with the use of language on signage (in this particular image I am using Urdu, a language I know and therefore can verify its meaning). As an additional note, I wish to continue with this 'street view' perspective and create different environments of my fantasy world which incorporate class structure (wealthy/poor) reflected in its different architectural styles, clothing, food etc. I have started on my colour study test by separati...

I have been continuing my artistic style for South Asian architecture to develop more work such as the Moti Musjid (The Pearl Mosque) in Agra: Following today's discussion with Jim and showing him my most recent artwork, the question of colour use and architectural elements came up. Some questions asked by Jim and by myself were: Why choose purple for an arch rather than an authentic colour? Can a colour palette influence how someone identifies an environment? What identifiers do people use to place an environment in a particular setting? What makes an arch Roman rather than Islamic? How could I manipulate a Roman arch so that others believe it to be Islamic and vice versa? The key difference between Iron Pillar (right) and Moti Musjid (above) is that Moti Musjid has clear South Asian motifs e.g. domes which reveals more about the type of environment and setting the image exists in. On the other hand, Iron Pillar architecturally could be various styles e.g. wester...

Over the past few days I have been developing different areas such as using a rougher style in digital art, looking at various  South Asian art/architecture styles and improving my  3D modelling in Maya. Firstly I looked at cityscapes to develop  mood schemes to use in background art: From these colour palettes I did quick drafts of landscape backgrounds: I have been looking at South Asian architecture for concept art references to develop my street view and started drafting initial ideas which looked at a 'rougher' style which ensured I could complete it fairly quickly and still retain its core motif/s to make it visibly 'South Asian' architecture. Below is an example I did of the Iron Pillar in Delhi  where I retained the core elements of the arch and pillar, yet went for a pop art style in colour scheme in an attempt to 'modernise' the architecture: I am still unsure as to whether this colour choice was right as I am attempting to...

This week I had a discussion with my tutors about where I wanted my research to go, my areas of interest and what my initial ideas were. As a result Josh mapped out my thoughts as a mind map seen below: Jim set me the task of creating a street scene which incorporated the South Asian elements I had discussed about (in terms of what I thought was lacking in current games) and how I would go about constructing this fantasy world. I have 2 weeks (from 02/10/19) to do this which I am excited about and looking forward to exploring. So far I have researched references of video games which manage to incorporate South Asian elements (whether done successfully or not). The references are: Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India by Ubisoft (2015) Ubisoft made an attempt to use a historical period of India which on the surface would seem like a very good example of what I personally want. Although I am a huge fan of the series overall (certain games not so much of a fan e.g. Unity, Black Fl...

After researching the essential/desirable skills for a concept artist in gaming, I found that although 2D skills were necessary, a lot of jobs required knowledge of a 3D modelling software. From my experience in architecture I had previously used Maya to create a mask for building forms, therefore I've chosen to improve my modelling skills in Maya and hopefully by the end of year have a good level of proficiency in it.  From watching the tutorials Josh sent me, I started to model a weapon as a way to get familiar with the tools and create quick forms using a reference:  I have found it a lot easier than I expected to get used to the manipulation tools. This method starts with a form most similar to the shape you want (in this case a cuboid) and manipulating vertexes to follow the reference image. This is pretty similar to how I created my building forms in my architecture degree but whereas I self-taught myself back then, I found it helpful to watch the tutoria...