hey, i think you could've increased the convergence on the perspective a little more. the lines would lead a little more to the characters on the ground. Hence there'd be more focus on the little characters.
Hi Alex, i just discovered your channel, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge! Im self taught and overall im doing pretty good when it comes to fundamentals and laying down random ideas/iterations in a professional manner but im having troubles with coming up with the initial design briefs like you did at around the 40 minute mark, especially briefs that may push me outside of my comfort zone. If you are a professional you will be provided with a brief from the studio (or from the school if you're a student) but as a self taught i don't know where to begin with that. Do you have any advice or freely available resources regarding this issue? Have you studied a little bit of screenwriting in your free time? It seems also that you have some knowledge regarding game mechanics and where to direct the player, does it comes from playing videogames? Im asking because with my studies i really don't have the time do install and play games at all. Sorry for the long winded message and thank you in advance 🙏
Hi! Thanks for reaching out, always nice to hear from new people. For answering your question, I don't know that I have any resources readily available for designing a brief. A brief is simply a set of constraints that describe a goal for you to design for. You could have something as simple as "ancient mushroom village", or you could have a more elaborate piece of backstory, or a story moment, etc. I have studied writing, I used to write a lot and write in my spare time for fun. But if you're asking about coming up with more unique ideas, you could try a few methods. One, look up a thing called a "mind map". I do a mind map exercise in one of these lessons. But essentially, you start with one word as an idea, like "ship", and think about every possible idea related to it. Ship -> "pirate" -> "Chest" -> Treasure map -> Island -> Hidden -> Bermuda Triangle -> Ancient Gods -> Greek gods/egyptian/norse. You can then pick your favorite key words and mix them together to come up with a mash of more unique design ideas. You can also do things like pick one idea, "mermaid", and pick another, totally unrelated idea, like "lightbulb". Then figure out how to blend those two. IT doesn't have to be literal, but how would you merge these two ideas? Irridescent, glowing, maybe jellyfish influence? Now what happens when you think of a personality for the character? A lot of the stuff that I was writing down at the :40-minute mark was me thinking through what the character Vaselisa would be experiencing, based off of her personality. She's studious, so she likes to learn. What are the kinds of things a person who spends all their time learning has in their home? But furthermore, what do they like to learn? Why are they learning it? Do they have some sort of goal for trying to read as much as they are? What are the circumstances of their environment? Do they have family, or pets, or a certain routine? How would that affect how they arrange their home? So the more you can think about things this way, the more you can flesh out an idea to bring life to something. It doesn't always have to be complex. Really, sometimes it can just be "inuit warrior polar bear", or "ocean market" and you make something. But if you want to get more detailed, spend some time thinking about stuff, and how that stuff can relate to even more stuff. As for understanding game mechanics - some of it I've just heard from other artists here and there, but you can also watch people talk about game design on the GDC channel, and other fun youtube channels that go over game design mechanics. As concept artists, part of our job is to think about good design or storytelling for the product at hand. So it's worth educating yourself on things like cinematic filmmaking and game design here and there.
@@AlexHuneycutt Wow, thank you very much for your detailed answer Alex! I honestly didn't expect this much info from a youtube reply lol this mind mapping method you are describing reminds me a little the stream of consciousness used in narrative but in a more ordered and focused fashion, i'll definitely look it up and apply it in the next days. TH-cam is full of lessons about fundamentals but lacks content regarding design based on an initial brief so your channel is a godsend in this sense, especially right now that i hit this wall in my learning. Thank you again! 🙏
![[안방1열 직캠4K] 베이비몬스터 치키타 'FOREVER' (BABYMONSTER CHIQUITA FanCam) @SBS Inkigayo 2404707](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Tn3bGHiBWkg/mqdefault.jpg)
Where was this channel all is this time!?! Thanks so much for these videos and please do keep sharing ❤
Thank you for your works and detailed explanation!!! You deserve much more!❤❤❤
hey, i think you could've increased the convergence on the perspective a little more. the lines would lead a little more to the characters on the ground. Hence there'd be more focus on the little characters.
Great video, but had to install an addon to increase the volume since it's soooooooo low
Hi Alex, i just discovered your channel, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge! Im self taught and overall im doing pretty good when it comes to fundamentals and laying down random ideas/iterations in a professional manner but im having troubles with coming up with the initial design briefs like you did at around the 40 minute mark, especially briefs that may push me outside of my comfort zone. If you are a professional you will be provided with a brief from the studio (or from the school if you're a student) but as a self taught i don't know where to begin with that. Do you have any advice or freely available resources regarding this issue? Have you studied a little bit of screenwriting in your free time? It seems also that you have some knowledge regarding game mechanics and where to direct the player, does it comes from playing videogames? Im asking because with my studies i really don't have the time do install and play games at all. Sorry for the long winded message and thank you in advance 🙏
Hi!
Thanks for reaching out, always nice to hear from new people.
For answering your question, I don't know that I have any resources readily available for designing a brief. A brief is simply a set of constraints that describe a goal for you to design for. You could have something as simple as "ancient mushroom village", or you could have a more elaborate piece of backstory, or a story moment, etc.
I have studied writing, I used to write a lot and write in my spare time for fun. But if you're asking about coming up with more unique ideas, you could try a few methods.
One, look up a thing called a "mind map". I do a mind map exercise in one of these lessons. But essentially, you start with one word as an idea, like "ship", and think about every possible idea related to it. Ship -> "pirate" -> "Chest" -> Treasure map -> Island -> Hidden -> Bermuda Triangle -> Ancient Gods -> Greek gods/egyptian/norse.
You can then pick your favorite key words and mix them together to come up with a mash of more unique design ideas.
You can also do things like pick one idea, "mermaid", and pick another, totally unrelated idea, like "lightbulb". Then figure out how to blend those two. IT doesn't have to be literal, but how would you merge these two ideas? Irridescent, glowing, maybe jellyfish influence? Now what happens when you think of a personality for the character?
A lot of the stuff that I was writing down at the :40-minute mark was me thinking through what the character Vaselisa would be experiencing, based off of her personality. She's studious, so she likes to learn. What are the kinds of things a person who spends all their time learning has in their home? But furthermore, what do they like to learn? Why are they learning it? Do they have some sort of goal for trying to read as much as they are? What are the circumstances of their environment? Do they have family, or pets, or a certain routine? How would that affect how they arrange their home?
So the more you can think about things this way, the more you can flesh out an idea to bring life to something.
It doesn't always have to be complex. Really, sometimes it can just be "inuit warrior polar bear", or "ocean market" and you make something. But if you want to get more detailed, spend some time thinking about stuff, and how that stuff can relate to even more stuff.
As for understanding game mechanics - some of it I've just heard from other artists here and there, but you can also watch people talk about game design on the GDC channel, and other fun youtube channels that go over game design mechanics. As concept artists, part of our job is to think about good design or storytelling for the product at hand. So it's worth educating yourself on things like cinematic filmmaking and game design here and there.
@@AlexHuneycutt Wow, thank you very much for your detailed answer Alex! I honestly didn't expect this much info from a youtube reply lol this mind mapping method you are describing reminds me a little the stream of consciousness used in narrative but in a more ordered and focused fashion, i'll definitely look it up and apply it in the next days. TH-cam is full of lessons about fundamentals but lacks content regarding design based on an initial brief so your channel is a godsend in this sense, especially right now that i hit this wall in my learning. Thank you again! 🙏
57:30
audio wayyyyyyy quite