The word ‘western’ is an adjective used to describe a region situated in the West, in particular Europe or the United States, relative to Asia (i.e. the East) – per dictionary.com. The same source notes the common reference to “a story, movie, radio or television play about the U.S. West of the 19th century”. From the header image provided in the briefing document, it is safe to say that this theme is based on the exaggerated genre, rather than its primary definition. Therefore I have associated the word ‘western’ with gun-slinging cowboys and frontier-esque scenes; these connections will be explored in the next task.
Mind Map
Following the sources examined above, I’ve produced a mind map that breaks down and analyses the word ‘western’, its definitions, and the concepts I feel surround it. As depicted in the PDF linked prior, I’ve made sure to include a large range of subject matters that range from large scale locations and environments to minor pastimes and miscellaneous items that could represent the genre as a whole. As the brief states the diorama must consist of props and landscape related pieces, I’ve made sure to steer away from characters and creatures.
Mood Boards
Mood boards are an “arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept,” either to the creator or an audience. Producing a mood board or collage helps the viewer envision a theme or overall atmosphere as well as create a foundation for asset development and visual style; the process also provides developers with a period of time for comprehensive research. (Source: oxforddictionaries.com)
Saloon
After playing countless hours of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2, I’ve come to quickly associate the theme ‘western’ with wild west saloons and city bars. I’ve made sure to gather a range of images I feel best represent the concept and moods I feel fit the assigned genre, including depiction of the smaller details, such as the types of liquor on display and the metal bar commonly placed at the foot of the counter. The collage also consists of screenshots and renders of RDR2’s own saloon designs and layouts, as well as what looks like early photographs of real western bars. Over the course of the summer holidays, I’ve spent a considerable amount of hours studying a range of materials and learning how best to recreate them using Substance Designer – in both a realistic and stylized sense. One of my best pieces so far is a wooden planks texture that includes a dynamic paint mask for wear and tear, and so I hope to utilise this in whatever diorama I plan to create in September; hence researching an environment that would obviously put this material to work. I aim to one-up any criteria given for practical work this coming year but the size and content of my diorama will still depend upon the deadlines provided. Below I’ve inserted some amazing work by Munkhjin Otgonbayar on artstation.com, alongside his wireframe and detailed lighting renders; this saloon environment consists of a variety of individual props for further study once I’m aware of the project’s time frame, content and requirements.
(Source: Munkhjin Otgonbayar)
Desert
The typical ‘wild west’ this theme is encourages students to explore experienced a wide range of weather and consisted of plenty of different climates, including both desert and frosted mountains; here I’ve decided to study deserts. The large open spaces of sand, dust and pale rocks are commonly littered with dry, withered shrubbery. These deserts also contain features such as low valleys, canyons, and bizarre rock formations – all of which I find extremely interesting, and so deserve further investigation. I’ve done my best to portray this broad range of landscape in such a limited climate using the collage above. In preparation for more focused research, I’ve created some stylized desert materials using Substance Designer over the summer, and have uploaded them to my online portfolio. The embedded 3D diorama below, created by Petro Stepaniuk on sketchfab.com, depicts a stylized crystal mine entrance leading out to a semi-enclosed desert. Although stylized work in general doesn’t interest me, it’s best to keep an open mind and to include ideas that are outside of my comfort zone so that I’m able to expand my horizons in terms of knowledge and technique.
(Source: Petro Stepaniuk)
Law & Order
One of the first dioramas I imagined when looking into this genre consisted of a rusting rifle, glass of whiskey, and a wanted poster atop an old, worn table – one of many similar possibilities I could choose for September’s units. However, I quickly found this idea to be too simple and boring. I also thought everybody else would be following this sort of concept; it’s typical and uninteresting so I’ve now moved away from it entirely. However, I did feel it was worthy of some cursory research and so I’ve included it in my list of mood boards. In the collage above, you’ll find items related to the small diorama I just described, such as rusted jail keys, wanted/missing posters, cuffs, spirits, a lock, and a sheriff’s badge. Again, this would be a scene that could utilise the wooden planks material I spent so much time creating. The diorama inserted below, modelled and textured by Ruben van Bladel on artstation.com, is the first piece to actually look like a diorama, that I’ve included. The landscape’s small radius and the model’s simplicity suggests the scene is small, which in its own way, is quite appealing; due to its scale, the poly/tri budget could be considerably larger than more open-world environments. The diorama’s careful planning provides plenty of angles to focus on and present in a portfolio format.
(Source: Ruben van Bladel)
Transport
This board was initially limited to locomotives and frontier-esque railways, but after seeing Nathan’s model of a wagon, I thought it was best to expand my horizons. In turn, I’ve made sure to cover other modes of transport, like horses, a range of wagons, and finally – trains. From this selection, I could choose to focus on a train station, the train itself, a horse’s saddle, or carriages for the final diorama. However, a train seems like a lot of modelling work for such a small project, a saddle would be difficult to create to a high quality without knowledge of sculpting, and a carriage is pretty boring. Full circle. Decarpentrie’s locomotive was featured as one of sketchfab.com’s spotlight models in 2015. Although the geometry is neat and simple for an object that is usually quite complex and detailed, its textures really bring the whole piece together. Alongside some other smaller and simpler objects, this sort of idea could turn into a great diorama.
(Source: Willy Decarpentrie)
Mines
The whole idea of moving to North America included the promise of a new life, adventure, and riches. This fantasy however, would have to consist of plenty of back-breaking work, like mining for expensive minerals such as coal, gold, or iron. Therefore, I’ve created a mood board for ‘mines’ – a branch explored prior, in the mind map toward the top of the webpage. Here, you’ll see a heavy mixture of dry climate, poor wooden structures, iron tracks, and never-ending tunnels. From this set of imagery, I imagine a stylized mine entrance, decorated with vibrant gems, with tracks that trail out into a small desert diorama. Despite already using a mine as an example in the desert section prior, I felt it wouldn’t look right leaving this idea with no working example of its own. Clément Masset on artstation.com has created an amazing environment that reminds me of the Morrowind expansion pack for Elder Scrolls Online, but visually superior by far (of course). Everything in each render compliments the scene and I find this work really inspiring. Although this particular example utilises a more stylized appeal, I think it would work just as nicely if it were more photorealistic.
(Source: Clément Masset)
Native Americans
My gran’s senile behaviour involves repeating the same stories every time I visit, and it’s a large part of her elderly charm. One of the details she recites is her eldest son’s obsessions with ‘cowboys vs. indians’ as a teenager, approximately 40 years ago – something I always think about every now and then. As a result, I’ve added it to the selection of mood boards in my research. I’ve explored this sub-theme before in level 2 game’s units 5-7 so I have a pre-existing collage to exploit, which contains images of wild horses, arrows, traditional fabric patterns, dream-catchers, and tents. At the moment, I can’t picture a small diorama made up of these features but I will continue to study this concept before the more in-depth ideas generation phases. As I mentioned before, I’m predicting a good few people will be modelling a few select item resting atop a table for this set of units and so I’ll be moving away from that concept entirely. However, I couldn’t not include this upload inserted below; its unique style and simplicity stood out to me and I’d love to get some weapon practice in before any university related interviews. On the other hand, native american folklore is extremely interesting and I’d like to weave that into my work somehow, so I’ve also added a couple of scenes created by Liam Curtis on artstation.com. There’s a possibility that units 9-10 will resemble units 1-4, in which the work is divided up into 2D, 3D. and programming – if so, it would be a great opportunity to combine a 3D environment with some paint-over type creatures.
(Source: grico316, Liam Curtis)
Level 3 Year 2 