Project Introduction
Welcome to BA5, my second university project
of my second year, and boy am I excited for it :D I will jog your memories by
stating that for my previous project I worked in a small team of 3 (including
myself) to create a design document for a game we created. Our design worked
out really well and we were incredibly proud of it!
BA5 is going to be a practical
continuation of this design document project whereby we have been tasked to
create demo/interactive aspects of the game. I have a rough idea in my head of
what I would like to do but it will predominantly be based around set design
and asset creation for 3D engine CryEngine.
First things first, however, we had a lecture from Nigel on the 7th which was focussed on colour and the
effects of light.
Lecture Notes
Without light there would be no colour,
form or sense of distance.
Light is “electromagnetic radiation”
Light is manifested in linear parallel
rays which are multi-directional.
For light to work it must absorb the
surface of that which it hits (surface and materials), reflect and refract
(partial absorption and bent).
It depends on the object the light hits
to the reflected colour and a totally black surface absorbs light completely.
Fresnel effect.
Bounced light, if bounced of the
atmosphere, may appear blue.
Shadows are effected by the light
intensity, distance from the source, dynamic occlusion (the further the surface
moves away from the light source the more the shadow falls away).
Sub
surface scattering is the effect of light being scattered through a surface and
giving the appearance of a glow. For example if someone shines a light through
someone's ear, the ear has an orange glow.
Light Gets Absorbed…
Light Reflects…
Light Refracts…
Diagram example of how light reflects…
Diagram example of diffused reflection…
Photographic example of (diffused) reflected light
Diagram example of how light reacts
when refracted…
Refraction is the change of direction of a wave (in this
case it’s a wave of light) due to the change in its surface. For example when
you look at an object through water the light refracts through the water and
distorts the image you are seeing. As you can see from this STUNNING clip art
image I made, the torch light shines through into the glass as normal with its
multiple parallel linear rays but when it passes through the glass of water it
refracts and shoots out in different directions on the other side.
Photographic example of refracted
light…
There is a daisy in the background of this photograph
which is out of focus and not the focal point. Attention is drawn to the water
droplets because the light is refracting through and picking up distorted
images of the daisy in the background which is why we can see it.
Bounced Light…
Bounced light is when light rays bounce from one
absorbed surface onto another to create more patches of light. For example, if
there are light rays coming through a window, they can only enter at one
specific angle, they can’t jump around and light up an entire room. So, how
does a room become light when you open
the curtains? Well the light rays that pour in become absorbed on the surfaces
they hit once they enter the room, they then bounce around creating multiple
extra light rays which hit and become absorbed into other surfaces creating
light.
Diagram example of dynamic
Occlusion…
The further the surface below the sphere moves away the
lighter the shadow becomes as it falls off.
Diagram example of sub-surface
scattering…
When light is absorbed into certain specific surfaces if
can scatter due to the nature, material and texture of the surface. The light
becomes absorbed and whilst some will reflect off from the surface, most will
become absorbed within the surface and scatter. This will cause the object to
have a glowing effect.
Photographic example of sub-surface
scattering…
An ear is a perfect example of sub-surface scattering.
The ear is a thin selection of skin and is not incredibly dense. When light is
shone from behind it the ear appears to glow because the light is becoming
absorbed within the ear surface and then scattering all around it to light it
up.
Colour theory, relativity and
application…
We measure the temperature of colour in degrees Kelvin .
It is an important element to consider when setting the scene in a video game,
photograph or film scene because it can alter the perception of the work and
audience reception.
Blog Task - Andy Park
After the lecture we were told to choose two images and
analyse the light within them as a homework/blog task. I decided to study Andy
Parks concept art that he produced for God of War III.
The first thing I
notice about this image coming straight from my lecture notes is the
colour temperature.
Referring back to the Kelvin scale I mentioned previously, if you look at the room ahead of
Kratos the colours are distinctly hot. There are reds, oranges and in the very centre
there is white which causes the image to read as if the room is very hot in
temperature.
This is further established in content as this is Hades’, lord of the
underworld, throneroom. Hades is a Greek god and is supposed to represent hell,
hell has connotations of fire and uncontrollable heat so that is why the room
has to appear hot in colour.
The colours outside the fire room are distinctly
cooler.
They have dark blue (almost green) tones which imply that the area is cold
and damp.
This throws a visual comparison and draws extra focus on Hades throneroom.
The hot room appears to be giving off a lot of light
(which makes sense if it is fire) and this is illuminating
the area in front of it. Between
the throne room and Kratos is some water where there is evidence of diffused
reflection.
As the only light source is coming directly from Hades
throne room at the back of the image, there
must be bounce light lighting up the left and right side of the
environment because the parallel linear light rays wouldn’t be able to
bend around and light up the supporting walls. The floor upon which Kratos is
standing also appears to be absorbing light.
‘Olympus Base
Interior’ - Andy Park
Okay so again, referring back to the Kelvin scale, this
image is predominantly dark blues which make the image feel incredibly cold,
eerie and damp.
The image shows only 1 source of light which is at the
back of the cave (top left of the image). This source of light is, somehow,
lighting up the entire cave area; we can see a waterfall highlighted in the
bottom right hand corner despite it being hidden and obscured behind rock
pillars blocking the light. So, how do we still see this waterfall? Well, the linear
parallel light rays are
flooding in and hitting the rock formations in front of them, theses rocks then
get light bounced off of them in linear multi-directional rays until eventually
some light is bounced upon the waterfall. The water from the
waterfall itself reflects light back into the image too.
The light source in the image is incredibly
intense,
this is suggested with the white tones amongst the light appearing as if to be
over exposed. It is due to this intense light that we can read the
distance of the image from the source of light to the foreground/back of the
cave. As the light hits the rock formations dynamic occlusion occurs and we are
faced with strong shadows on the far sides of each rock that doesn’t face the
source of light. Although we can still see the environment furthest away from
the light source, it is definitely beginning to drop off into shadow.
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