Week 27 Summary

Week 26 Summary

This week was similar to last week with the addition of a lecture. The sessions focused on showing us how to use Marmoset, and were also like last week in the sense that they were more like drop-in sessions. We were told that we need to use Marmoset for our time machines and pillars in order to create a turntable videos for them, which would have been nice to know before, since we only have a week left until hand-in, but in all honesty there was not much to learn and creating the turntable itself only takes a few minutes.

The lecture focused mostly on our essays, any final questions we had on it before hand-in and how some games break the 4th wall. It was shorter then most of the other lectures, but we still got some great information from it.

Like last week I decided to come in for most of the sessions in order to focus on my work, and I have now completely finished my time machine with all of the different maps, with it also placed into Marmoset with a turntable video created. As well as this, my essay is almost finished and I have almost everything else completed. I need to finish off a few bits of information regarding my work, such as the creation processes, creating the turntable for my pillar and creating the PDF documents ready for hand-in.

Week 25 Summary

This week was the return from out Easter break, over that time I managed to get a good chunk of my essay done and ended up finishing most of my own models. Our sessions from here on have been cut down to a single 3D workshop, but I have gone into most of the other sessions so I can keep working on my time machine. The sessions did not cover anything new really and were mainly used as drop-in sessions if we needed help with anything. By the end of the week I managed to have my time machine UV mapped and ready for texturing, so I should be finished with all of the 3D models very soon.

Time machine help

http://polycount.com/discussion/138413/how-to-create-roughness-map-in-photoshop

Essay plan

Character Diversity in Smash Bros.

Body Image

-Overweight characters (King Dedede, Wario, Mario?, Olimar?, Villager?, Miis?, Ness?)

-Tall women (compare Samus to other females)
-Non-muscular (Mario characters, Earthbound, Kid Icarus)

https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/2foh6h/silly_height_chart_i_found_for_smash_characters/
http://imgur.com/a/pnB1v
http://i.imgur.com/rdVuaMZ.jpg
http://www.vgf.com/forums/threads/vgb-nintendo-characters-height-weight.83443/

Sexualisation

-Female (ZSS, Bayonetta) 

-Male (Captain Falcon, Shulk)

-Palutena pole dance taunt

-Panty shots removed from previous Smash games.

-More sexualised for a Nintendo game? Or all the little sexualised bits put into one game?

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/08/talking_point_a_history_of_the_sexualisation_of_samus

http://www.dorkly.com/post/67210/why-samus-new-zero-suit-outfit-is-unacceptable

http://capriceandwhimsy.tumblr.com/post/82459338493/zero-suit-samus-heels-why-its-a-big-deal-and

http://lipmag.com/culture/from-bounty-hunter-to-busty-babe-the-sexualisation-of-samus-aran/
http://www.ship2block20.com/tropes-vs-men-videogames-male-sexualisation/

Gender

-ZSS and Sheik? (Transgender or not? For Sheik, male, female or transgender?)

-Pokemon? Most depicted male, despite Pikachu being the only definite male. 'Male as default'

-Corrin sexuality? (very minor but still)
-Gender ratio: 35 male, 8 female, 7 either gender, 7 unknown, 1 transgender? (Sheik)

http://www.themarysue.com/metroids-samus-aran-transgender-woman/
http://thefederalist.com/2015/09/11/the-contradiction-of-claiming-samus-aran-is-trans/
http://www.zeldainformer.com/articles/Why-Nintendo-and-the-Zelda-Community-Have-Sheiks-Gender-All-Wrong

Competitive

-Dominance of the female characters (ZSS, Sheik?, Bayonetta, Rosalina)

Important notes:
-Smash mixes franchises as opposed to being characters made specifically for the game. Comparable to Playstation All-Stars or UMVC3.
-Amiibos - how you have physical sculpts you can take of and train them- puts more attachment onto the characters from the audience.
-Gameplay - how it attracts a lot more casuals players as opposed to other fighting games. Easier control scheme and items.

http://gfaqssb.wikia.com/wiki/The_lack_of_diversity_in_this_game
-Fans view on the lack of diversity in Smash Bros.

http://www.hypable.com/marvels-cinematic-diversity-problem/
-Diversity lack in Marvel's Cinematic Universe.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/10/video-games-diversity-problem-runs-deeper-than-race-gender
-Lack of video game diversity. Smash is another fighting game, but is also a wacky party game bringing characters from various genres of games that has a very wide, diverse audience. Mario and Kirby attracts those who like platformers, Pokemon and Fire Emblem for the RPGs, LoZ and Metroid for action adventure, various minor characters for veterans(?), Ryu and Little Mac for the fighting game enthusiasts, Earthbound for story, Villager for the simulators (as such)


-Introduction: How Smash Bros. Wii U's character roster, whilst certainly not perfect, is more diverse then almost any other fighting game.
-Body Image and Minorities: How the characters within the game represent a large amount of minorities, and how it doesn't.
-Sexualisation: How it has dealt with sexualisation, before well and poorly, and balancing it out across genders.
-Gender: How gender is dealt with within the game, well and badly. The male default.
-Competitive: How the competitive community is dominated by the female characters, despite the gender ratio in characters, and how players playing female characters are the most loyal to their characters.
-Amiibo: How the game features a system where you can train your own fighter, and how these figurines and their function bring a new kind of bond to these characters.
-Conclusion: Why Smash Wii U has both a great diversity in characters, and how it has a bad diversity of characters, and what it could do to resolve this in future releases.


Games to compare to:
Playstation All-Stars, Soulcalibur, UVMC3

Other comparisons:
Marvel Cinematic Universe?


https://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/comments/2gcfpk/sexualization_in_gaming/

Week 24 Summary

On Monday I came in and managed to have the pillar finished off completely, with the textures applied in Unreal 4 and edited to give it a more rocky appearance, which I have since taken screenshots of. I'm very happy with it, although there was a couple of things I wanted to add to it such as some red to the damaged parts and a tear on his face, although I really don't think I have the time to worry about minute details since I have the time machine to work on. The lecture in the afternoon was another live workshop one.

On Wednesday I had a Photoshop session and we was shown more about masking which was quite fun, as well as layer styles. I'm enjoying these little Photoshop sessions as I'm learning more things I didn't know, and I know these will all be helpful for the future, in anything I do within the program.

The session on Thursday I started creating my time machine, which is a robotic woman. I have created most of the torso and head in ZBrush, and later on on Thursday I managed to finish the arms and begin working on the cables coming out of her back as well. The afternoon lecture was about phenomenology and thinking through senses, which was another great and interesting lecture. I also discussed some ideas for my essay with the lecturer and received some input on my ideas, to the point where I think I have a solid idea on what I want to do for my essay, so I shall be working on that during our 2 week break.

In my free time I've simply just done some more written work and finished off a couple of bits here and there, but I am slowly getting everything complete now, so hopefully over the course of the holidays, I can get a good chunk of things finished.

Pillar in Unreal 4

This is my finalised pillar inside Unreal Engine 4, with the normal map of the high poly model placed on top of the low poly. I'm very happy with how it turned out, although I think it could of gone better. Regardless though, this was the first time I've properly used ZBrush and thus I'm happy with it when seen in that light. The damage is the main problem I think, as it is not very realistic (I originally wanted to go with an almost zombie-esque look), but because I never textured it with colour this was never truly shown off. The damaged parts also look slightly pixelated, although I am unsure on whether this is due to me having to greatly increase the size of the model when bringing it into Unreal, whether the texture was too low in resolution, just how I damaged it or a mixture of any of these.