Task 4

FMP Research
My final major project for a cute environment is inspired by other cute worlds in different types of media, such as the TV show Care Bears and the video game Naughty Bear. Below is my research into different related medias that will inspire me in creating my final major project.

Naughty Bear
Naughty bear has inspired me to create a 3D environment which appears to be ran by bears. Naughty Bear is a game predominately focused around the existence of cute teddy bears and the environments you play within are very cartoon styles and often childish looking, which is the type of look for my environment I hope to achieve.

Naughty Bear environments
As you can see, the environment below is very light and appealing to the eye, with non-complicated models that will not consist of a great deal of polygons, allowing a steady frame rate and desirable gameplay (no lag).


My FMP is going to be created using UDK and Lightwave, so in order to do certain things within these engines and make my final idea relevant to my research and inspiration, I am going to use tutorials on YouTube and from other sources to learn how to do more complex things like animate and assign textures to a high standard.

I will also be referencing videos of game footage and images from the internet relevant to my idea for my FMP in order to create an appealing and high quality final outcome.

Videos I will need to use include the ones below.

This video I have used in the past and will continue to use in the future is a tutorial on how to successfully animate doors and similar objects in UDK. It is a very easy to follow tutorial in which it shows how you can animate doors using the kismet and matinee built in systems to enable an object to trigger and animation upon approach.

This video is very useful for the creation of my FMP as it shows how to animate objects simply and effectively and the skills are transferable to different types of animation. I will go on to use the skills learnt from this video which I have developed over the past few years to a higher level to animate other objects to make my final environment a lot more appealing and interesting.

I have thoroughly researched YouTube to find other videos that will help me add extra interesting assets to my environment. One video I found is a tutorial on how to add swim-able water which is a very interesting asset to add to an environment, it creates more of a sense of realism. The video also shows how to texture the water asset so it is not just an invisible volume, which would confuse the person navigating through the finished environment.

As I have had a lot of practice creating 3D environments using programs like Photoshop, UDK and Lightwave Modeller and Lightwave Layout I have already established the skills necessary to create my final environment and I will not need to reference any tutorials apart from the ones above.

When creating my final environment I will often refer to images from the internet featuring assets relate-able to a "cute" environment. I will also refer to my original research in my ideas generation and research parts of my assignment.

There are several other sources that I will also look to for inspiration when creating my final product. I will refer to children's books, films and TV programs.

I will look to several different children's books for inspiration when creating my final product. These books include:

Teddy Bear Stories by Sam Taplin & Violeta Dabija - This children's book consists of illustrations relevant to the ideas I have i mind for the creation and development of my environment. The illustrations are very appealing to children and the book also features many illustrations of houses and environments, that I will refer to when crating my own models to feature within my 3D environment.

The Paddington Bear Series by Michael Bond - This is a well known series that often features illustrations which are also relevant to the type of style I am am going to convey within my 3D environment, by the way I design my assets and the way I will lay out my environment.

Berenstain Bears Series - The Berenstain Bears is a series of children's books created by Stan and Jan Berenstain and continued by their son, Mike Berenstain. This series of books has been around for decades and is well known for consisting of appealing illustrations that are very appealing. I will refer to these illustrations when creating m environment, so I can convey a very child friendly feel to my environment.

I will refer the following illustrations. 

 The illustration to the left is featured in the book titled, "The Berenstain Bears: Moving Day", This illustration is particularly appealing to me, as it features a very upbeat look to it. This illustration gives off a very kind and sweet atmosphere, that is very relevant to how I would like my 3D environment to look upon completion.

The building in the background is also very appropriate to the type of 3D models that I would like to create for my 3D environment.

The illustration to the right features the same building as in the illustration above, though this illustration focuses more on the more natural environment aspect. I will refer to this illustration when I am creating the environment which will surround my building models.  

When creating my environment I will also be referring to children's TV programs, Specifically, The Care Bears Family and My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. I will be referring to these particular TV shows, because they both feature environments that are very appealing to children, and are very similar to the style of models I would like to create.

Below is an episode of The Care Bears Family, below this video I have include images of particular assets that I will use for inspiration when creating my final environment and 33D model assets.

The Care Bears Family: Episode 9 - This episode of The Care Bears Family, is a particularly new version of the show, as the Care Bears series/franchise has actually been around for decades.

What most intrigues me about this particular version of the show, is the fact that it is made completely in 3D. All assets are three dimensional, meaning they are the perfect inspiration of my own environment creation.

Below are screenshot from the show, in which you can see 3D models and environments that I will look to for inspiration when creating my own environment with a similar theme.

In the image below, you can see an environment that would be very appealing to a child, it is not over detailed or over complicated and it definitely falls under the cute categorisation. I will definitely be looking towards the two images below when creating my own 3D environment.

In the images below, you can see very appealing 3D models of furniture and smaller furnishings, they fit very well with the cute theme I am going for, and I will also use these particular images as reference when creating my final product.

I will also be referring to the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic series for inspiration when creating my environment. An extra benefit of referring to this particular TV series for inspiration, is that this series actually has a strong adult following, meaning that if I use this series for inspiration, I would also be creating an environment that would attract the attention and appreciation of adults, as well as children.

Below is an episode form the series, that I will use for inspiration in creating my final product, though it is not a 3D series, it will still inspire my creation.


Below are some individual screenshots from this episode, that I will look to for inspiration when creating my final product, mainly depicting buildings.

Now that I have acquired a vast amount of research and inspiration for my final product, I am confident in moving on to my pre-production process and prediction process. I will be sure to refer to all of my research and inspiration when creating my final product. 

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