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Game and Play development methodology: Week starter 1

Here’s a summary of the first weeks, and the first set of week starter stuff.

In class:

We performed some “speed dating” style idea development, in which we wrote down a wide variety of entertaining ideas of very condensed game mechanics and themes to explore in a social setting. Mechanics didn’t need to be as straightforward as you might think however.

Round 1: Adult Playground & Come in 5th place

This weird combo rapidly turned into innuendo. I’ve gotta wonder what exactly you’d have in an “adult” playground, and on second thoughts, I feel like that’s best not explored in an open setting on the great wide internet. Realising this, I moved on, picking up two new mechanics.

Round 2: To eat the most pies & be the most attractive

This one was fun to consider. We generally don’t associate eating contests with being attractive, so what if it’s a contest where you must do one while trying to remain the other? This sounds like it could be one of those wacky Japanese game-shows. Would the contestants all appear on stage and have a date with another person while simultaneously trying to scoff down as many pies as possible? Is it even feasible to maintain your decorum while you’re scarfing down NZ’s favourite grease, mince and dough combo? Has science gone too far?!?

A weird condensed personality and preference test: 

In which we had to simply put ourselves on axis rather than calculate it out. Basically, we were read out a couple of options or a scale to put ourselves on. what I put down was as follows:

For the results, I preferred fantasy and challenge in my games, I was as starter and a creator, a true neutral (naturally) and somewhere on the middle of an interact with - act upon - world - people axis. This was again for our interests in games.

Then, early last thursday morning I went and did the actual Myers-Briggs test. My results are as follows:

Well. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to make of all this to be honest. Some people find these tests to be quite informative about themselves, but for me I can’t help but wonder if they’re just glorified “find out what Pokémon you are” quizzes.

Still not 100% sure what my plan is for this semester with this paper. It seems like I can integrate it with my studio paper, which hopefully will make things a lot more streamlined.

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Texturing a massive tree is no joke. Initially I used a stylised wood texture I’d previously used on other trees, which as it turns out looks good on a smaller scale but looks downright unnatural at massive scales. After much experimentation and consultation with Aldo and Steven, I managed to nail down a much more “natural” aesthetic, which involved:

Making bark appear with very slight height mapping

Ensuring that this bark’s height mapping did not appear through the moss

Making the moss appear natural in both appearance and placement.

Each root’s individual model was textured using a smart material of my own creation - the moss is placed based on world space normal information, with the bulk of moss appearing on the areas angled upwards, less to the sides, and none from underneath. Creating smart materials allows for a lot of work to be procedural, which not only saves time but creates great consistency between different models.

Further steps we need to take in order to make the tree appear more natural is adding foliage to the tree - bushes growing around the outside, mushrooms and other fungi growing on the roots, etc.

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Ryan has completed a model for the tree stump environment, but it looks like it may need a full overhaul, given the lighting errors and low resolution of the texturework.

In addition to this, I’ve been sketching out some patterns to be applied onto the stone like paint - borders which can help show the player progress and add to the aesthetic. I’ve incorporated chain motifs into a couple of them as with some of the pentagrams, but I’m trying to keep it abstract overall. Primary influences here are the border patterns used in ancient Greece.

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Studio VI: Pentagram concepts

One of the puzzles we’re developing involves creating a star shape out of reflected light shafts, so I’m designing a pentagram motif to be applied to the floor. I’m doing my best to avoid any sort of satanic, occult or death metal connotations, thought I suppose it doesn’t help that I’ve got the star inverted. 

For the first two images I went with a theme of chain links, which will echo those that we plan to have on our player character. These two show some promise, however they both look at least a little like the doodles of a death metal obsessed teenager.

The next three I went with a geometric spiral design, which I think works pretty well to create an air of magic without appearing all too occult. Of these, the last is my favourite.

The next two used a more traditional spiral shape in the centre, the second of the two appears more natural than the first with it’s points.

The final one uses a chain link motif again, but this time inside of the stroke. I’m not so sure about this one - while I like the inner chain, I don’t think it works so well in this instance, for something that will likely be glowing paint. If there was a painted mural with a similar design I would likely go for it.

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Another tree, with the same material applied as the previous tree. The smart material I previously created remains effective in rapidly texturing any tree Ryan throws at me in a minimal style we’re aiming for, however much of today was spent resolving UV unwrap errors.

In addition to this, I’ve created two different styles of leaf texture: One more regular, one more painted looking. So far I’m not satisfied with either of them, and so I will likely be looking into other solutions for generating materials that look as stylised as we would prefer. Though you cannot see it in the image, the leave’s material is altered in unreal to appear as if swaying in the wind. 

I will likely need to invest some time into learning substance designer, which will be particularly useful when creating tiling materials such as grass, dirt and stone. 

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Testing out the capabilities of Substance Painter 2, a program I should have bought years ago. That much is certainly clear. Doing my best to create low noise, procedural textures.

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Studio V: A reflection on Orbital Drift

We’ve come a long way since the beginning of the semester, though in truth the project began to take shape some time before then. Now we call ourselves Aeonyx, but back then we were just an idea: Myself, Aldo, Ryan, Sujay, Thomas, Caro and possibly Fritz working together on some kind of VR project in Unreal. We eventually got to the semester, lost one Sujay and gained one Joachim, and spent the next couple of weeks mulling over what to do with ourselves. We eventually came to the idea of a VR Sci-fi starfighter game - reasonably easy to make, fun to play and easy to understand - or so we thought. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. In the group I must be quite honest, I had it pretty much the easiest - I was the Art guy, making concept artwork and textures for the models Ryan made. The thing is, Art doesn’t just stop working at the last minute like the programming side of things. I cannot give Thomas enough credit, as he truly was the powerhouse of the group, and without his stoic effort there would be no Orbital Drift. He soldiered on amidst bits of code deleting themselves in the last minute, Unreal refusing to compile, crashes at unfortunate times. I think he more than anyone has earned more than a pat on the back and a good night’s sleep. That’s not to say that the rest of the team didn’t contribute, because it really was a group effort. Thanks guys!

As for my own role, it went hand in hand with Ryan and Aldo’s contributions. Ryan worked hard to turn two dimensions into three from my concept art, while Aldo worked to make both my and Ryan’s work look terrific in Unreal engine through a variety of shaders and effects. I feel like I have overall improved in my ability to create textures and create concept art that can be translated into 3D models. My workflow and work ethic were clear weaknesses in previous semesters, but with more of a focus this time around I’m actually quite happy with what I was able to achieve. Orbital Drift is no magnum opus on my part, but nonetheless I’ve improved in my existing abilities along the way. I’ve also learned new techniques, such as creating fonts for an alien alphabet to add that extra layer of detail to everything. This also let me churn out logos and advertisements in order to fill up the level and add some visual storytelling to the mix - our theme was Gladiatorial Starfighter battles with ever present corporate sponsorship, and I think I was able to portray that pretty well with the logo plastered spaceships and beaten industrial scenery.

It’s clear that I still have a lot to learn - I certainly think that learning to model in 3D would be helpful for my workflow - but I’m pleased overall. I’m looking forward to next semester, whatever it might bring.

See you, space cowboy...

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Studio V: Conceptual and Contextual Statements

Contextual Statement

As the conceptual and texture artist I was responsible for much of the visuals of Orbital Drift. I took influence from other games with distinctive visual styles, with an equal focus on the practicality of the presentation rather than just how good it looks. The principles of making a game easy to understand visually apply to virtually any genre, but are particularly important for fast paced combat games. One prominent example is Team Fortress 2, which features a distinctive style intended to replicate mid 20th century commercial illustration, but also one designed to be practical for a fast paced, competitive First-Person Shooter.

In TF2, developers at Valve Software implemented the art style with an intended “Read Hierarchy”, so that the player could instantly recognise:

What team a player was on - by colour, either red or blue.

What character-class the player was using, denoted by the distinctive silhouettes created by varying body proportions, clothing folds, hats and so on. They even went to the lengths to create distinct walk cycles for each class, for an additional level of recognisability.

What weapon they had equipped, by creating a colour gradient that was lightest on the chest area of the character model.

Through the application of these principles Valve was able to make it easy for players to recognise any character even when they were only a few pixels tall on the screen. I worked to apply this same theory with my concept art: I created four different starship designs, each with a distinct silhouette to promote easy readability (Only two of these designs were implemented into the game however, due to time constraints). As I began concept art I looked into starship designs from various universes, from those created by Ralph McQuarrie for the original trilogy of Star Wars, to more modern designs in from games such as Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous. Our game has similarities with these two games in terms of the gameplay, however the art style is very different, going for a more performance friendly and simple cel shaded look rather than realistic textures and materials. The art style is also meant to evoke a much less serious, satirical universe. I also worked to make sure that each starfighter had a distinct paintjob. For the starship texturing I also took inspiration from the designs applied to NASCAR racers, with both ships showing conspicuous branding on nearly every surface. Some of these brands are repeated across multiple ships, alluding to the theme corporate sponsorship.

In keeping with the Alien civilization idea, I developed a fairly simple alphabet for use in advertisements, branding and ship detailing. The initial idea was creating something similar to the korean system which sees each character created from a set of smaller characters. I created a set of 26 characters so that I could just transliterate from English, though if I had more time I would have liked to develop a proper language system. For the purposes of easy texturing and logo creation I created a couple of fonts, rather than having to draw out each individual character every single time. In my research I looked into fonts for Chinese, which as it turns out, require literally thousands of individual character designs. For my fonts I kept them at very regular widths for the sake of simplicity, and designed characters to follow a loose set of rules - vowels contain curved strokes for example, and bilabial sounds such as M, P and B have have a closed square. I found this approach was better than just creating random characters, and it made the script seem much more organised.

Overall the texturework kept a limited palette of bright primary colours to keep the world vibrant, and the objects within it visually distinct. Colour coding objects and scenery is a common practice in video games; Objects that are hazards to the player, such as explosive barrels, enemies and environmental hazards are often coloured red in multiple genres.

Our games art wasn’t the most original, however I think through my research I was able to make it highly functional. Our game as a whole takes influences from similar games in the genre, but we’ve been able to maintain create a distinct “brand” through the chosen art style, which also is effective in game in allowing the player to recognise their targets. I was able to make things look both alien and familiar via the use of an alien alphabet of my own creation, and in the process, worked on fleshing out the corporate themes of this universe visually through advertising. Overall I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made with my research.

 Mitchell, J. (2008). Stylization with a Purpose: The Illustrative World of Team Fortress 2. Retrieved June 12, 2017, from http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2008/GDC2008_StylizationWithAPurpose_TF2.pdf (Presentation at GDC 2008)

 Sonnad, N. (2015, December 18). The long, incredibly tortuous, and fascinating process of creating a Chinese font. Retrieved June 12, 2017, from https://qz.com/522079/the-long-incredibly-tortuous-and-fascinating-process-of-creating-a-chinese-font/

Conceptual Statement

My primary goals for this project were to create a distinct, and functional look for everything. The visuals of the game are strongly linked to gameplay, particularly in games with a faster pace. Being able to rapidly distinguish different gameplay elements is vital for shooters, if you’re unable to identify enemy combatants it can be a frustrating exercise. I worked to create a look that was:

Visually distinct

Tied into the theme and branding we were going for

Allowed for rapid identification of Enemy ships, Environmental hazards and various scenery props

Easy to produce

Early on in the development of the game we decided to opt for cel-shaded rendering, which was effective for simpler textures and gave the game a sort of cohesive art style. The textures I created were primarily bright and distinct colours: Environmental hazards and destructibles were red, various props were yellow and the Spaceships had inverted colour schemes: primarily red with blue highlights for the Dualjet, primarily blue with orange highlights for the Rift. We wanted to create a game full of branding for various alien companies, with the Starships themselves plastered with brands like NASCAR racers. To this end I created a number of fictional brands, some parodying existing logos and companies.

In creating the branding for an alien universe I also worked on creating a script for the aliens to use, as having Latin characters everywhere wouldn’t make sense in a place where there are no humans. The script was meant to be regular characters that easily replace latin characters in a font, allowing for ads that look to be written in an alien script but follow an understandable format. I created two fonts, which allowed me to not only rapidly add detail but also churn out advertisements that could be strewn around the level and fit in with the corporate theme. These brands are often parodies of existing brands: Bepis for Pepsi, Rasor for Razer, to add a layer of familiarity in an alien universe.

For the texturing of environmental objects, I kept the colour scheme simple and easy to read, with turrets and other environmental hazards in red, while neutral objects had a yellow paint scheme. Common motifs include the use of an alien script of my creation, lights that glow bright blue and a generally gritty and beaten up look to most of the external surfaces. Textures were comparatively easy to author, as detail was minimal.

I feel however that I could have much improved the overall cohesion of the look with more time, with greater detail and more optimised UV maps. I would also have liked to have created a more handwritten style of font for my Alien script, to create some diversity from the Arial style font I was primarily using, and the Tall sharp font I used on the occasional brand. One thing I discovered was that stylisation is not so easy as one might think - creating things to look realistic takes effort on the materials side, however with stylisation everything needs to follow similar design rules, elements need to be repeated, but in a way that makes sense.

From my understanding of the Games industry, it is typically one person who makes the model and texture both, allowing for a faster workflow, however we split the role up in two given my specialisation in Texturework and Ryan’s specialisation in 3D modelling.Towards the end, Ryan was churning out models for me to texture that were just miscellaneous objects to be strewn around the level, objects I would have like to have had more input in, however we were somewhat strained for time at that stage. In the future I would like to properly learn 3D modelling so that I can keep a much less complicated workflow, not needing to rely on Ryan to fix any mistakes and being able to work at my own pace, and likewise it would improved the group's overall productivity if Ryan learned how to do the texturing, so that work could be split more evenly between the two of us. In the future I need to improve on my knowledge of software such as Substance Painter and Substance Designer to be able to more rapidly produce complex and and good looking material textures.

Overall, I’ve learned a lot this semester, even if the game is somewhat different from our original vision. In the beginning I needed to rapidly create concept artwork for the various ideas we cycled through before we ended up with the idea that became Orbital Drift. I had to learn how to create concept art that was easy to understand and base models off, learn how to rapidly iterate on textures based on the feedback that I was given, and work at different scales as required. I had to solve problems quickly in order to output textures that worked in the game’s engine and were in keeping with our artstyle.

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Studio V: Orbital Drift submission poster prototype

Rendered in Engine ™ 

Basically what it says on the tin. the .PSB for this one is a whopping great half a gigabyte, so much that I’m keeping it on a USB rather than messing around with keeping it updated on google drive.

Keeping it real with just enough Michael Bay lasers and lens flares.

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Studio V: Billboard Art dump

These are a series of billboards I’ve designed for the purposes of filling the level. Some parody existing brands, others are pretty much original.

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Studio V: Texturing progress update

Let’s get right into it. Over the past few weeks, while often distracted by other projects, I’ve been working on textures for other assets in our game, and these are the ones I’ve completed thus far. The I feel like they show my strengths and weaknesses: I’m much better at doing the visual design for elements such as the fast food cup or the enemy ship than I am at items that require more visual detail such as the chair. I’m not 100% happy with how the chair has turned out, however, I’ve got other fish to fry at this point in time. The images above are some pretty rudimentary Photoshop renders, and not necessarily representative of how it will look in game.

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Space, Image and Sound: Adventures in compression and vertical format video

This here’s the video I created to play on a loop on my installation, with the decal creating a silhouette over the screen. I focused on getting interesting colours to contrast with the cutout that would be overlaid. The video was taken across a couple of days. Shot in my phone, edited in premiere pro, then compressed to the greatest degree for this upload.

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Space Image and Sound: Reflection

Overall I’m dissatisfied with my project, as once more I suffer the consequences of poor time management. Ideas that could have worked had to be cut thanks to this. But alas, sometimes you’ve got to fail, even repeatedly, in order to hammer some lessons home.

Regardless of that, I had some fun with this project, as it concerns a theme I find quite fascinating - the aesthetic of cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk. When I watch cyberpunk films, I’m particularly interested in the environments, which evoke places I have and haven’t been - Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles - but with a more dystopian air. I wouldn’t want to live in a dystopia, but it’s mighty tempting to visit one.

If I were to redo this project, besides putting more time into it, I’d like to do more exploration of the audio side of the genre too, as well as a greater look into dystopian philosophies. Speculative fiction is a passion of mine, and I regret not being able to work more with it for this project.

Maybe it’s time to have a pint and relax. See you somewhere else.

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Space Image and Sound: Project summary

The Bar from someplace else

My Bar sign is meant to evoke the key themes of Cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk, genres representing a vision of the future that seems ever more real in my eyes. A world where it is impossible to escape from technology seems more and more like the present rather than the future. William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner are often among fiction credited with defining the genre, and the latter in particular has remained very influential in it’s aesthetic. I want the sign to explore both Cyberpunk and Post Cyberpunk ideas in it’s aesthetics.

Fiction has always been used to reflect the feelings and changes which society has been going through. We live in a digital age, where a wealth of information and connection can be carried in one's pocket, where people broadcast what they do and where they are - even without realising it.’One quote has always stuck with me when it comes to Cyberpunk:

"Transhumanism is about how technology will eventually help us overcome the problems that have, up until now, been endemic to human nature. Cyberpunk is about how technology won't."

— Stephen Lea Sheppard

Many, including Neuromancer author William Gibson have denied that Cyberpunk is a genuine literary movement. To add to this, people now refer to “post-cyberpunk” - a lighter and slightly more optimistic answer to darkness induced audience apathy. The world might seem like it’s getting worse, and perhaps it is, but we’ve come a long way from incessant warring and feudalism. The world’s not going to end for a while yet, and it’s worth enjoying what you can - go to the local pub and have a pint with some friends, it’s downright therapeutic. It’s important to me that while I want to explore the aesthetics of what is typically a dystopia. Lawrence Person states “Cyberpunk tended to be cold, detached and alienated. Post Cyberpunk tends to be warm, involved, and connected.” I want to straddle the line between the two.

“Everyday life in a postmodern culture is pervaded by a sense of cultural discontinuity and fragmentation not unlike that of the aesthetic tradition of surrealism” According to Patrick Novotny. The sights and sounds of cyberpunk are typically a mix of western and eastern aesthetics - signs might be in Chinese or Japanese, even in a western setting. This strikes close to home to me living in Auckland, with sizeable population of immigrants from the far east, there are quite a few signs written in Chinese script. A sign should be inviting to all, so I made it multilingual.

People have a lot of different opinions about Blade Runner, but one opinion is quite common: the film is very beautiful. The dark, rainy Los Angeles of 2019 is far from ugly, instead it is a city filled with lights in every colour, cutting through the gloom. On the sides of some buildings Geishas advertise sweets and cigarettes, while others tell you to enjoy Coca-Cola. Advertising is a key component of a densely populated city, as various groups try to assert themselves. On the street level bright neon is used to make one place different for another. This applies to many other cyberpunk works as well - Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell embrace the idea of cities full of neon lights, where the cities presented in both films are almost characters in their own right, a living, breathing presence.

The sign itself will integrate tech as a part of itself - moving image, as opposed to static or only slightly animated neon or bright decals. Much has had to change from my original design, which was far more complex than the final product will be, thanks to my own poor time management. I wanted to have a sign that directly responds to people around it displaying a randomly chosen message to those that came near, however in the time remaining it’s unlikely that will be possible. (Another harsh lesson in time management). Anyway, the original proposal looked something like this:

Now the sign places much less emphasis on typography, and more on illustration. It’s now vertical rather than horizontal, like a sign next to a door. Many signs in crowded places have to be vertical - when you can’t build out, you have to build up. Unfortunately I cannot provide images of the sign right now. Had I more time (or had I used the time I had better) I would also have worked on an auditory element, exploring the sound of cyberpunk to go with it, no doubt with quite a bit of inspiration from artists such as Vangelis, rather than just trying to sound high tech, exploring more philosophical themes.

The sign I aim to create should encapsulate the key elements of visual design in these works and more - create an air of romanticism and glamour while referencing to a future that may not be the most pleasant place, but one in which it is possible to live and be happy. Integrated in the sign is video footage intended to evoke these feelings footage of drinking, neon signs, glamourous sights as well as nostalgic ones. A good bar can be an oasis of light, a distraction from a world filled with bad news. There is often the feeling that the world is becoming a worse place, and I’m not sure I agree - as the world becomes more and more connected through technology, bad news seems ever closer to home. Some things are unlikely to change any time soon, but the world and most of life as we know it looks set to continue. Might as well have a pint and take a break every once in a while. The world will continue regardless...

Bibliography

Novotny, P. (1997). No Future! Cyberpunk, industrial music, and the aesthetics of postmodern disintegration. Political Science Fiction, 99-123.

Person, L. (1999, October 09). Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto. Retrieved May 25, 2017, from https://slashdot.org/story/99/10/08/2123255/notes-toward-a-postcyberpunk-manifesto

Puschak, E. (2016, November 23). AKIRA: How to animate light. Retrieved May 25, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf0WjeE6eyM

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Space, Image and Sound: Exploring the aesthetic of Cyberpunk

For the purposes of idea generation, I basically wrote down thoughts about the themes of the genre. Regarding Cyberpunk:

The basic way it’s described are “High tech, low life”

"Transhumanism is about how technology will eventually help us overcome the problems that have, up until now, been endemic to human nature. Cyberpunk is about how technology won't.

— Stephen Lea Sheppard of RPG.Net, on the relation between transhumanism and cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is the idea that the future will likely be worse, that all of human technological progress will be all for naught.

People will reject technology, reject much of religion, will turn to vice and hedonism.

Corporations will rule supreme, each person will be one amongst billions, a mere statistic.

Cyberpunk frequently integrates visuals from Asian cultures, in particular China and Japan - in the 80’s it was the sentiment that Japan would take over the world, given their economic boom, and now that sentiment turns to china and their seemingly endless economic growth, however even today Japanese aesthetics are almost fetishised by western designers.

These countries often have a major difference in culture as compared to the west: they have a higher population density and a different cultural outlook. In the west, the emphasis is on the individual, and individual achievement. To be different, to be a rebel is not necessarily looked down on.

In much of Asia, the culture is different, and far more about belonging to a far larger group. Conforming to the way things are, and acceptance of one's circumstances - the desire to change must be backed up by hard work.

Cyberpunk is not all about low life however, there is also a lot of emphasis on glamour and strange new fashions - from whence the “punk” comes from. In a society where everyone else chooses to conform, people work to set themselves apart visually, dressing flamboyantly just to mark themselves “different”.

The genre has a frequent focus on cities, but rather than dull concrete or clinically clean glass, often depicts a world of visual noise, of companies all trying to be seen. In Blade Runner, advertising is everywhere - on the side of skyscrapers Geishas eat candy and ads tell you to “Enjoy Coca-Cola”. Massive blimps strewn with strange lights espouse the delights of living Off - world. On the street level, the rain and fog is infused with neon signs in twisting shapes, a clash of vibrant colours that infuses much of cyberpunk to come.

Much of this comes from the cyberpunk strong film noir influence. A genre that gained popularity in the 1940s and 50s, known for both stories of crime and moral ambiguity, and also stark and often surreal aesthetics.

They didn’t have much colour to work with back then, so they compensated with the contrast of light and dark in Chiaroscuro.

Post-cyberpunk is also important - the idea that things may be bad, but not as bad as most cyberpunk thinks they will be.

With all this in mind, I set about working on a sign. I gathered art and film stills from various sources for use as inspiration:

A neon theme and gaudy colours were  quite prevalent. Since Blade Runner it’s become quite common to include Chinese or Japanese text and themes to add a visual element of cultural clash - Eastern and Western civilization meeting in a bizarre neon melting pot. I came to the following conclusions as to what I should present with my sign:

My sign is for a bar or club, places not especially known for being high class. People go to bars for a variety of reasons: some to forget or deal with personal issues, but some go there to socialise and have fun.

The aesthetic is intended to have some glamour to it - hence the ultra closeup of the woman’s eye in the illustration. In retrospect I should have made the design somewhat less anime-ish

Low-life: implied by the pill capsule in the eye. In a lot of visions of the future the disaffected youth turn to drugs of every kind as a means to deal with a society they feel rejected by.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

The background is vibrant, in contrast with the black cutout of the illustration -chiaroscuro.

The text on the sign is both in English, and written in several different ways in Japanese and both traditional and simplified forms of Chinese - “Something else”. A phrase with multiple meanings - the you could say that an experience as “something else” referring to it being different, or out of the ordinary. Or otherwise it could just be a joke, when somebody makes a suggestion for something to do and you would say “something else”. 

The video should include philosophical questions or talking points as an overlay.

The sign ended up being designed as below, and will be a black cutout over a screen playing colourful video. This has been done through vinyl which has been cut out to the size of the screen.

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Pretty plain poster, lots of room for more info. Rendered in engine™!

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Studio V: Small status update for 09/05/17

New direction for the ship’s graphic design. No more black (or rather, very little) and smoother blue speed lines rather than the rough lightning of before. I’ve moved the writing on the intake forward, and added panels to the middle engine cowling, as well as logos to there and the wings. I think this is enough for today, tomorrow I will finish it with a couple more logos, and weathering: soot streaks and crosshatching to add to the cell shades style while also breaking up the flat areas. 

Stay tuned.