What prompted this reflection was the first part of Toby’s talk about his project on the BBC weather app. There he talked about how important it is to create everyday apps that are entertaining and engaging. His main point was the fact that because it’s something that is used every day that it should be made less boring. Even though weather apps (in this example) are not for entertainment that does not necessarily mean we cannot make them engaging and exciting. It is exactly because they are the daily informational apps we use that we need to design them to be entertaining. The way Toby and his team did that was by including real-time imagery of the weather in the background. That way people would not only get textual information on it but also visuals:
But what caught my interest was something Toby said that explains the whole idea of weather apps: “you don’t care about that it’s 22 celsius, you care about it because you are going for the walk (...) you care about what it feels like.” You care not for the fact itself but how the fact is affecting you.
Later after the lecture, I went to explore the app to get a better understanding as to why only a simple background image, could be the difference between entertaining and boring. After a few minutes of staring into it, I got my eureka moment: images make you feel. I could feel the weather and imagine what it was only with a look at the background. Why is that? It is because of a thing called memory encoding. Encoding in short it is “information entering our memory system from sensory input.” (https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/psychologists/encoding-definition-psychology-and-its-role-in-memory/). The idea of it is that memories can be sensory and thus seeing something that triggers a memory will also trigger the feelings we have had during the making of said memory. Meaning using a simple image of the weather outside the human brain can recall almost all sensory input from the time before when it has experienced such weather.
My final reflection on this talk is how important images are for any designer to use. It is not only about adding pictures that will create more aesthetically pleasing apps (for example) but it is also about making them feel less tedious. It is not only about adding pictures but it is about adding images that can give a deeper user experience. That is why as a goal in the future I have set to keep in mind how and when I use images, even for simple apps. I want to be able to create quality content that is also engaging to the user, no matter if it is a game or an app. Because of that I will also go and explore more apps and their designs, so I can see what works with them.
With Lucy Kyriakidou we had a talk on freelancing, character design, and the role of the art director. As I am the most interested in the character design part of the lecture and that is why I will write about that subject in a reflective summary. After that, I will explore what I have learned and set goals for my further practice as an artist interested in character design.
In order to create a good character, you have to have done your research. Maybe the most crucial thing about the research is to have a perfect understanding of what the game is and have a context about it. You have to research the subject itself and the game so you can gather ideas and inspiration. As Lucy said sometimes there will be “unexpected details that would otherwise not come across to mind (...) You need to allow yourself to learn and be surprised by what you may find out”. Another thing Lucy said during her talk regarding the research process was that “it also helps bound the design to reality”. Another very important piece in the research process of creating a character is to make a mood board. The idea of a mood board is that with it you show the research you have done for that character. It shows that you have gone to create a character that has layers and the more in-depth is the design, the better it is.
The next step of the creating process is thumbnails and rough sketches. In this step usually, the artist will take the mood board and in turn, start turning it into a character. This stage gives you “complete creative freedom” of experimentation and its purpose is for the artist to see what direction will they take in the design. It’s all about exploring ideas and designs with rough quick sketches. Here the shape language, the silhouette, and the proportions are what are most important as they create the base of the character. Another thing is that while staying within the lines of the brief here is where the variety comes from. Feedback is important as “you usually don’t design characters in a bubble” and with it is the feedback that will give you more exploration room while keeping you on the right path of the design. The second stage should be more about quantity rather than quality for now: you have to have gone through every design you can think of before choosing one. That step is very important because very rarely the first design is the best design. Usually, artists will go through at least four designs before choosing one to take further.
After thumbnailing and roughs, finally comes the sketching. In the sketching phase, the designer/artist has taken one design to develop further. Usually in the sketching part is where the principle “show doesn’t tell” will come to light - the artist should usually use poses to express the character. For example, if it is a happy, sunshine-type personality the character would be very flexible, they would have open arms and legs and proudly held head. It is the body language of the character in the sketches that shows the character the most.
The final two stages are the details and the clean-up. They are pretty self-explanatory and it is where the final design comes out. One thing Lucy noted in her talk was how important was for the clean-up to be actually very clean. It is because after you have done your job the design will be taken out to the model designer, animator, or someone else and your job is to give a clean, good design that can be worked on. Giving clean images is what will help the team and the game keeps up with the schedule.
Another thing with character design that Lucy noted that we have to learn is that a lot of the stuff we create will not get used. We have to know that our most favorite design we have made may not necessarily work for the project. It is not because it’s not good but simply because it is not needed.
Visual storytelling is another key part of the character design process that has to be kept in mind. Most of those things won’t be mentioned in the brief when creating a design but it is something that the artist has to always keep in mind. The reason for that is that by including all those details the design would gain so much more depth. The artist should keep in mind the environment of the character: what is it is and how it affects and relates the character to the surroundings. Personality can also be told visually: how they wear their hair, do they have tattoos, scars, and other things. Routine, past, goals, and foreshadowing is also a big part of the visual storytelling of the character. By including those visual details they help ground the character to reality and make them relatable to the viewer.
Diversity is crucial and designers have a personal responsibility to present it. Everyone has their own standard for beauty so the artist has to keep in mind how their own bias affects not only the product but also the people it reaches.