BA3: Digital Scultping

Further Research

Okay so I am not sure if I stated earlier but my chosen game for this project is God of War III. I found some different examples of architectural concept art and posted it on an earlier post however I now feel it’s the time to push that research further to aid my initial concept designs of the door/window. 

To help me with this work and getting visual primary references I bought the book “The Art of God of War (3)” which is full of absolutely beautiful concept work from the game. The part I was most interested in was the environments chapter as this contained more detailed concepts of the architecture and also has some beautiful stand alone door concepts which are perfect to refer to for this project. Here they are…

 

I must admit, doors are something I greatly overlook in games. Doing this project has made me realise the beauty and essence they carry and just how important they actually are to a game. I mean, a door can be a symbol of many major elements of a game. They can signify a beginning, middle or end section. They can represent unlockable areas, hidden secrets and new areas of for gameplay. They often lead the player through from one section of the story to another and yet I never sit and really LOOK at them. I never think about doors in games. 

The door I have shown above (with the Spartans, shields and swords around the side) is actually in integral part of the gameplay within this section of God of War III. I remember playing it. The eyes of each of these 10 Spartan soldiers lights up around the door.  You must defeat all of the enemies that are then thrown at you and every one of the main, harder ones you defeat  a light switches off.

This is just 1 example of a door that is a part of the core gameplay and is yet overlooked! I'm not saying this is a problem, I mean, it’s a door. All I am trying to say is doing this research has made me think about the smaller details in games that you do just overlook.

 

Pushing the Research Further!

It’s no secret that the God of War franchise is based  upon ancient Greece and it’s mythological culture. The games are rife with centaurs, minotaur's, titans and, of course, the ancient Greek gods such as Zeus, Hades and Athena.  I figured to fully appreciate and understand the architecture of the game I would need to look into Greek architecture and also look into the influences of mythology. 

Wikipedia defines Ancient Greek Mythology and architecture as follows:

 “Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece and are part of religion in modern Greece and around the world as Hellenismos. Modern scholars refer to, and study the myths in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself. 

Greek mythology is embodied, explicitly, in a large collection of narratives, and implicitly in Greek representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek literature.

Archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artefacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.

Greek mythology has exerted an extensive influence on the culture, the arts, and the literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in these mythological themes.”

I then decided to look into the architecture of Ancient Greece. The thing to seriously remember however, is that most of the ancient Greek buildings that are still around today are ruins or heavily restored to keep their beauty alive for generations. In the game God of War III, lead character, Kratos, is actually in the “ancient” Greek period and therefore the buildings are immaculate (other than when being destroyed through plot, story and gameplay).  This means that I need to find reference images and information about how they looked at the time, as opposed to how they look now.  To start off, Wikipedia had this to say about the ancient Greek architecture…

“The architecture of Ancient Greece is the architecture produced by the Greek-speaking people (Hellenic people) whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland and Peloponnesus, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC.”

 

“Ancient Greek architecture is best known from its temples, many of which are found throughout the region, mostly as ruins but many substantially intact. The second important type of building that survives all over the Hellenic world is the open-air theatre, with the earliest dating from around 350 BC. Other architectural forms that are still in evidence are the processional gateway (propylon), the public square (agora) surrounded by storied colonnade (stoa), the town council building (bouleuterion), the public monument, the monumental tomb (mausoleum) and the stadium.

Google image result searching for “Ancient Greek processional gateway propylon”

Ancient Greek architecture is distinguished by its highly formalised characteristics, both of structure and decoration. This is particularly so in the case of temples where each building appears to have been conceived as a sculptural entity within the landscape, most often raised on high ground so that the elegance of its proportions and the effects of light on its surfaces might be viewed from all angles. Nikolaus Pevsner refers to "the plastic shape of the [Greek] temple.....placed before us with a physical presence more intense, more alive than that of any later building".

The Types of Greek Buildings

“The rectangular temple is the most common and best-known form of Greek public architecture. The temple did not serve the same function as a modern church, since the altar stood under the open sky in the temenos or sacred precinct, often directly before the temple. Temples served as the location of a cult image and as a storage place or strong room for the treasury associated with the cult of the god in question,, and as a place for devotees of the god to leave their votive offerings, such as statues, helmets and weapons. Some Greek temples appear to have been oriented astronomically. The temple was generally part of a religious precinct known as the acropolis. According to Aristotle, '"the site should be a spot seen far and wide, which gives good elevation to virtue and towers over the neighbourhood". Small circular temples, tholos were also constructed, as well as small temple-like buildings that served as treasuries for specific groups of donors.”

“During the late 5th and 4th centuries BC, town planning became an important consideration of Greek builders, with towns such as Paestum and Priene being laid out with a regular grid of paved streets and an agora or central market place surrounded by a colonnade or stoa. The completely restored Stoa of Attalos can be seen in Athens. Towns were also equipped with a public fountain house, where water could be collected for household use. The development of regular town plans is associated with Hippodamus of Miletus, a pupil of Pythagoras.”

“Public buildings became "dignified and gracious structures", and were sited so that they related to each other architecturally.  The propylon or porch, formed the entrance to temple sanctuaries and other significant sites with the best-surviving example being the Propylaea on the Acropolis of Athens. The bouleuterion was a large public building with a hypostyle hall that served as a court house and as a meeting place for the town council (boule). Remnants of bouleuterion survive at Athens, Olympia and Miletus, the latter having held up to 1200 people.

  Google image result when searching for the Acropolis of Athens

Greek towns of substantial size also had a palaestra or a gymnasium, the social centre for male citizens which included spectator areas, baths, toilets and club rooms. Other buildings associated with sports include the hippodrome for horse racing, of which only remnants have survived, and the stadium for foot racing, 600 feet in length, of which examples exist at Olympia, Delphi, Epidarus and Ephesus, while the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, which seats 45,000 people, was restored in the 19th century and was used in the 1896, 1906 and 2004 Olympic Games.”

 

Visual Influences Following on from my Research

Having looked into the background context of Greek and Ancient Greek architecture I now have a slightly more realised idea of Greek architecture that not only can I apply to my project but that I can also see within the God of War franchise.  I think to round this post off (as it seems to be getting a little on the long side now) I will post up some visual influences that I have found whilst researching the architecture and that I feel will prove helpful when trying to produce some concepts for my door.  These are NOT be my work, they are my visual research to aid and back up my written research. I have found these images through various search engines.