# Interdisciplinary Practice 2 (Games Art) (1J7V0031_2223_1F)

## MMU HARVARD
Ubisoft. (2010) Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Standard edition. Xbox. [Game] Montreal: Ubisoft.

Author’s surname/s, Initial/s. (Year of publication) Title of book (in italics). Edition if applicable., Place of publication: Publisher.

Title of the Film (in italics). (Year of production) Directed by director’s Initial/s. Surname/s. [Film] Place of production: Production Company.

## GOAL
Modular,tilable
Asstes and textures should be modular.

When selling assets and textures, buyers will be looking for assets that are modular. they can be reused several times and still look good. This saves data on a hardware

## TO DO

- [ ] get some Photogrammetry research! Primary research!
- [ ] Is playing Video games primary research?
- [ ] MAYA: Create the small houses from Spirited Away
- [ ] Research for Glossary: Play games where those are
- [ ] https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/fDXfLPy6aY74Ds4bMExeyxg0G7vpjkyLJ95I80gPJSxpN9WDBoDNBEPg3QVo8TqWBlmMJEX5UiKMihx9.27pF-zAZY_8D0jLH?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=etSU6RJdTqG089-RncyAWQ.1679576275525.668c59945846888bc3bdb1a94eb95063&_x_zm_rhtaid=494
- [ ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc2gcNVQmDw&ab_channel=StylizedStation
- [ ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9NX06mvp2E&ab_channel=GDC
- [ ] 1. Write up to date with everything I have done for the TREES project so far
2. How can this be implemented into me and Nathan's world?
3. Start planning out the Glossary for our project
4. Create those tiny stone houses in Maya!
- [ ] Research Japanese trees and stuff
- [ ] Design a tree in Tree It
- [ ] Create texture for the leaves
- [ ] Set this up in Unreal
- [ ] Thoughts from Adam ->

Signifiers in video games, what certain objects make us immediatly know how to interact with the world. For example:
The red barrel and how we know as the player that if we shoot it, it will blow up

Get peer fedback on work throughout on drawings and other things I am creating to cover a bit of the "collaborative" part of the unit

Figure out an interesting innovation based on my ideas:
Example:
mycelium cntrols the planet? There is a theory that goes like that the mycelium from fungi and that network creted and controls the planet
https://gardenculturemagazine.com/how-mushrooms-and-the-mycelium-network-are-healing-the-world/

Example 2:
Fungi influenced the robots?
The robots want the psychadelic experiences and eat mushrooms

LSD helps people?
The american tests on LSD and how this has helped a lot of people who are on their deathbeds. Under controlled environment, they have taken psychadelics and 90% of these people ended up being comfortable with the idea of death and that we are all a part of this world

To watch and listen to:
- [ ] Dunkan Trussel - family hour, Sophia, rochlin 501
podcast

- [ ] netflix documentary the one with his mum , midgnight gospel mom - mouse of silver

- [ ] Station 11, a post apocalyptic series about a bunch of artists

More: to get more practical work for my projects:
For example when I'm reading a book and the cool chapters, make a quick sketch based on the chapter

The connection of trees and how the speak to each other:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2yBgIAxYs&ab_channel=TED
How trees talk to each other | Suzanne Simard

- [ ] Make Hokora Statue more stylized
- [ ] Finish the tutorials by Ukranian lady

- [ ] Make a shader that is style of studio ghibli

Making a scene, making a shrine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1iV1D4M_pI

- [ ] Look at Damon's book to maybe get inspiration for the Shinto Shrine

make a material in Substance Designer that is a stylized grass that will fit nicely to my scene

for later, look at tutorials on lighting a scene and setting effects, maybe adding some fog and other effects. for example : the wind moving material that was in the stylized shark video.

- [ ] Model Fairylights for my scene
- [x] Also stylized water
- [ ] Sparkling snow shader? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCz-fKJS3wI

- [ ] SEAMLESS PATTERSN? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9no7MohqUw

**Make small flowers for foliage:**

- [ ] **Also some lilies here for the top of the water!**

- [x] Finish the first robot that was for CG exploration and do autorig, give a rust effect to him

- [x] Rebake this mesh:

- [x] Get a bridge for the scene when the player walks in
- [ ] Make a stylized skybox?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AltJpQsApPY&t=23s

**MUSHROOMS FOR THE SCENE**
- [ ] Chantarelle
- [ ] Bolete
- [ ] FlyAgaric

### Priorities:
- [x] Finish the hokora statues
- [ ] Stylized grass in Substance Designer
- [ ] Stylized Rock for the hokoras?
- [x] What I need when I get home: Substance 3D plugin for Unreal Engine https://marketplace-website-node-launcher-prod.ol.epicgames.com/ue/marketplace/en-US/product/substance-plugin
- [x] Finish torii gate
- [ ] Finish the fucking Hokora statues
- [ ] Maybe make a detailed drawing of the stick that mom picked up for me
- [ ] Fix up the Chanterelle (at home substance)
- [x] Stylized water
- [x] Stylized poff effect?
- [ ] Shimmer effect when entering the shrine
- [ ] Stylized rain
- [ ] Stylized stone for all of the staircases
- [ ] Stylized skybox?
- [ ] Stylized simple stones for the BG?

## Books on Fungi to consider
Fungarium Hardcover – 9 July 2020
by Ester Gaya (Author

Books by Paul Stamets (The dude in the Netflix documentary)

The Lives of Fungi: A Natural History of Our Planet's Decomposers
Book by Britt Bunyard

?
Flora of Middle-Earth - Innbundet, Engelsk, 2017
Forfatter: Walter S. Judd, Graham A. Judd
?

Ways of being ?
Ways of Being is a 2022 book on artificial intelligence and the natural world by James Bridle. A reviewer for The American Spectator said that the theme of the book was collaborative intelligence among humans, computers, and all of nature.

on trees and stuff:
The Overstory is a novel by Richard Powers published in 2018 by W. W. Norton & Company. It is Powers' twelfth novel. The book is about nine Americans whose unique life experiences with trees bring them together to address the destruction of forests.

## Inspiration

Genshin Impact Mushrroms - Genshin Impact Rukkhashava Mushroom




Genshin Impact Coruscating Potential jelly puzzle solutions for Fabulous Fungus Frenzy | Eurogamer.net
https://www.eurogamer.net/genshin-impact-coruscating-potential-jelly-puzzle-solutions-fabulous-fungus-frenzy-9026

Genshin Impact shader?
https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/aJV1q/genshin-impact-character-shader-for-unreal-engine#:~:text=This%20Genshin%20Impact%2Dstyled%20Character,customizable%20base%20color%20and%20shadow.

Stylized mossy log
https://gamesartist.co.uk/mossy-log/

mario Galaxy?

Manifold Garden

Blame! Master edition

naissancE game

Ghostwire

Samorost

Jean "Moebious" Giraud

Colour palettes from Monument:
https://www.monumentpalettes.style/

And using colour Thief:
https://lokeshdhakar.com/projects/color-thief/

Project Grove

## Random ideas: Create a very nice and simple stylized inforgraphic that shows the process of how to make stylized mushrooms?

## Week 1 : Introduction 01.02.2023
It was a better session and more informative than what we have gotten during the past 3 montsh of IP1 with the other professors.

Environment Design tips: Always go to the core of inspiration. If a game is inspiring, don't use the game itself as inspiration for future work, but find out where that game got its inspiration from and use the core of the inspiration for future references.

What do I want out of this course?

After a meeting with Nathan, (02.02.2023) we decided that we want to keep this mentorship going and work together more in the future. This opens the possibility to explore more for the world we have already built and find a new section I will concentrate on. It means I don't have to spend the first few months trying to figue out what I want pursue, but maybe then more easily jump into the work as we have established the world building from before.

### Current Readings

*Videogames by James newman*
Very outdated as the book was first published in 2005 and the majority of examples he gives are things that feel very old. When he mentionsed "the newly released Mario Sunshine", it does feel very old.

*PRESS RESET by Jason Schreider*
Very good book! Following Blood, sweat and pixels, this really gives the hard reality of the gaming industry

*Playing Hogwarts Legacy*

13.02.2023 meeting with Nathan Robinson
IP1: Regrowing the city, make parameters to see grow of moss or rust on either robots or shrines
- Maybe there are some academic papers written on how long it would take for grass to regrow and take over the city. (David Jackson?)
- The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
- Also play the game Horizon Forbidden West
- And Last of us

https://www.youtube.com/@Gdconf

2D Games art Concept art : Create a Compendium/glossar/beastiry with an overview over the Yokai spirits that exist in our worl. This is drawn with the old technique of Japanese drawing style:
Larn the traditional Sume-e way of painting:
https://japanobjects.com/features/sumie

ALSO! Create my own fake language for the game. Insired by Stray

Either build a shrine where I can slowly pull a paramterer myself to see the moss grow

-collisions, ucx

CG: come up ith a character. Another robot based on the Yokai spirits made into a robot

### Crunching a game with Bipin 15.02.2023

Based on the brief, we wanted to go as simple as possible as we started talking about concept mid week throughout the game jam. Being inspired by something simple as flash games and also being inspired by old school arcade games and especially Space Invaders.
(Taito. (1978) *Space Invaders*. Arcade. [Game] Japan: Taito.)



Using AI to help me find a design for the enemy spaceship
StarryAI





### Introduction to Visual Semiotics with Gabriele Aroni 15.02.2023
A general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals esp/ with their function in both artificially contructed and natural languages

\semiotics is both theory and a methodology that can be applied to a variety of 'texts', including novels, paintings, films, buildings, websites and even clothing
- Giorgia Aiello, visual semiotics 2020
The rem 'text' refers to any semiotic object endowed with material or symbolic boundaries and structural autonomy, or where different parts all have a function in relation to a 'whole' and which can therefore be examined as a unit.

not that the artis had a specific intnention, someone seeing it will have an interpretation of it a

*A theory of semiotics* 1975

Sign: a visual piece, man made sensually perceptible object, is able to evoke in a recipient a thouht - an image, a notion or a judgement - of an object other than itself

Ferdinand de Saussure- inspired "I am not a pipe"

*The threefold word of meaning*

Sense - meaning - significance

Charles Sanders Pierce : Triodic
Icon: A sign similar to the object

Impressionism is a part of semiotics. The impression of a tree by Paul Cezanne and not a perfect replica of how a tree looks, but the feeeeeling of it

Pablo Picasso: "Everyone wants to understand art"
Painting is a painting, it doesn't always have to have meaning
// Kind of like Charlie and Chocolate Factory, chocolate doesn't need o have meaning

Charles Sanders Peirce: *Index* : A sign with a direct relationship to its object
*Symbol* : a sign not similar or connected to the object, but purely conventional

We are always trying to make icons as close to realistic relationship as possible

Art went from realistic art to more surreal and impression while video games have gone the opposite way from very generic icons to more realistic graphics

David Myers: Video Games = Semiotics on Screen

Methodology and semiotics always works if one is unsure how to pursue the studies of something

## Runtime Procedural Shaders

Runtime Virtual Texturing

Unreal Engine : Dynamic Mesh Actor

Layered Materials for Environments | Unreal Fest Europe 2019 | Unreal Engine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl5fe-DAXRI




The beauty of NODES


https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.1/en-US/runtime-virtual-texturing-in-unreal-engine/

21.02.2023
Finished PRESS RESET by Jason Schreider
Last week: finished VIDEOGAMES by James Newman
also finished Bowie: an illustrated life

## Moss
Find out and specify from which side of the sun the moss would be growing, find a research for this as well

Maybe it would be fun to specify where the morning sun is in the software and then the texture would change based ont this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av8GlUPenXU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjByX5DKQhY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDluA1f5gzw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLf1O_6O8TA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwDB9SOcJKM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWItihAmaCY

Vertex paint
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn21tf4mcWo

Mushroom wall Substance Designer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV58c2TnknI

Adding bites or dents or something else into the Chanterelle using substance designer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml1iSGVMak4

Trying out vertex painting objects in unreal to see if this moss effect is what I am after

How the material is set up in the engine

Creating a custom setup from materials made in substance painter

Making 2 versions, one where moss is set to full

And one without

Add more?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dghCetkArJI

How would I get these parameters to work in Unreal Engine? The dream would be to have this grass density node in unreal where I would be able to simply pick an object and add the working system, adding the moss effect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITYD3OTMfRU

## Texel Density

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e6zvJqVqlA

### Meeting with Nathan Robinson 21.02.2023
Needing some inspiration and he helped me, he is creating the blocking out of the level while I am contonuing doing the art.

Making a ski lift up the mountain?

A kisok in the beginner area and how long it would take before it is overgrown

SLIDER - parameter: 0-1
?TESSOLATION?

Robot, some moss on him, then click a devise so the moss is being removed from the robot and you can enter a door that is in the treetrunk - Inside, transporting the player to a new, seperate level to Mushtech Metropolis

Research: Japanese doors and mix this style with Fantasy Lord of the Rings Hobbit doors

### Human Anatomy 22.02.2023

Osteology = The study of bones

Myology = The study of muscles

### STAVKIRKE???

https://www.nrk.no/sorlandet/no-gar-startskotet-for-a-byggje-stavkyrkje-for-112-millionar-i-setesdal-1.16280350

## Trees Project showcase 03.03.2023

### Extra Andrew Session 07.03.2023

Randomizing Characters



Create my own material sphere?

IP2 and final project

Exploring procedural art of course and fungi in this space and world. Assigning fungi growing on different asset slots on models and in the world.

For final project MA for example: research where different fungi grows in the world, assigned specific light sources and so on and these specific fungi would only grow in these sepcific slots in the world. For example, moss can only grow on one side of a tree (defined by where the mornng sun is) and learning how this could work, I could start assigning more specific details to fungi.

Make a clear plan

- [ ] Make those fucking small houses from Spirited away
- [ ] Research Fungi

## Modelling Hokora

Write up about what Hokoras are exactly, *Find a proper book and a source where I can write some information about that*

What are Hokoras?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokora


Shown in Spirited Away:

"The heavy clustering of them in Ghibli movies tends to be unusual, as they are often solitary or spaced out, rather than awkwardly placed right around each other. This is a subtle way to acknowledge to Japanese audiences that the characters are in a strange place. Witness how Chihiro's expression intensifies when she notices them as her dad passes by in the car.

Since those shrines are supposed to house kami, or spirits, a huge cluster of them indicates an area of high spiritual activity. This is something that is likely lost on western audiences in such a specific way, but yet they still retain a strong feeling of mystery about them even without knowing their meaning."

Modelling the basic shapes of the Hokora using Autodesk Maya

Adding details to the Hokora using Zbrush

Adding Noise

Baking the high poly detailed hokora on to the low poly hokora in Maya
As the hokora statues are quite small in the scene, I don't have to do this, but it was nice to test out and see if it would be working.

Modelling more Hokoras

The stone hokora statues are becoming more advanced

### Texturing the Hokoras

Ok, but too "realistic looking". I am going for a more stylized style

same here:

*Place in here more images of the actual model and the UVs*

#### Tri-Planar Projection for reading the edges better as my UV map is clearly not optimal

Now using Tri-Planar one

Created a Smart material based on the setting changes I did to the material so I can implement this to the other models easily without having to go through the colour changes and so

Setting the hokoras up in unreal inspired by the scene from Spirited Away

### Random title for my project documentation
with gratitude to the fungi from which i have learned

look into poetry about mushrooms? if there is anything existing...

have a walk through the city and draw a mushroom through Google maps

Ashli 08.03.2023





## Week 6
### Meeting with Nathan Robinson 09.03.2024

Bio: procedural

It is difficult to be able to make a system where it for example understand where light and the sun is coming from because lighting in video games is fake. It is not a real system and it is only for show. But one can for example create a system with boxes and minecraft type where in this area; grassland, a specific shroom can grow and another area; mountains, another shroom will grow

Concentrating on mushrooms now!

Finished reading *The world without us* by Alan Weisman
NOTES:
Page 9: Think of the misty, brooding forest that loomed behind your eyelids when, as a child, someone read you the Grimm Brother's fairy tales. Here, ash and linden trees tower nearly 150 feet, their huge canopies shading a moist, tangled understory of hornbeams, ferns, swamp alders and crockery-sized fungi. Oaks, shrouded with half a millennium of moss, grow so immense here that great spotted woodpeckers store spruce cones in their three-inch-deep bark furrows. The air, thick and cool, is draped with silence that parts briefly for a nutcracker's croak, a pygmy owl's low whistle, or a wolf's wail, then returns stillness.


Page 21:


Page 30: Some results were ludicrous, like English gardens with hyacinths and daffodils that never quite took hold in colonial India. In New York, the European starling-now a ubiquitous avian pest from Alaska to Mexico-was introduced because someone thought the city would be more cultured if Central Park were home to each bird mentioned in Sheakspare. Next came a Central Park garden with every plant in the Bard's plays, sown with the lyrical likes of primrose, wormwood, lakr's heel, eglantine and cowslip-everything short of Macbeth's Birnam Wood.

**Random idea: As in the book, the world without us, there are mentioned animals that became extinc because of us, what about I recreate these animals as robots and place them in our deserted post-apocalyptic world. A world without humans, now with animals that became extinct because of us**

page 171: 

page 135: 

The end of the world (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrYrXYOTSKI&ab_channel=VariousArtists-Topic

page 243:

page 249: Pioneer 10 and 11

**Random thought: If I were to send something up in space not knowing if anyone would ever be ablt to find it, but I was to explain our human race on Earth to another unknown something, what would I show?**

### entangled life - merlin sheldrake
page 30:

page 94: 
lichens are incredible, they can survive radioactive power that is crazy. so in our world, however the humans were extinct (probably by some radioactive shit) at least lichens survived easily


*This entire thing about mushroom taking other forms and becoming another creature, connected to my mushroom men creatures. definetely*


in 2009, the mycologist david hawksworth referred to mycologi as a 'neglected megascience'. animals and plant biology have had their own university departments for generations, but the study of fungi has long been...


bibliography in the book for other readings :-1:

linked. hoew everything is connected to everything else and what it means bor business science and everyday life / barabasi 2014

making eden 2019

towards a procedural philosophy 2018 p 186-98

ecology letters 2004 p 538-46

fungi in the ancient world, 2008, dugan

extra hidden life, 2018- hillman. b

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01430.x

shroom: a cultural history of magic mushroom 2006, letcher

chanterelle dreams amanita nightmares 2010 marley

mccoy, radical mycology, a treatise on working and seeing fungi 2007 p. 567-74

frontiers in microbiology

phonomony of perception 2002, merleau-ponty

sacred mushrooms of vision: teonanacatl 2005 metzner - introduction

fungal ecology 2014 p.3-19

radioactive caesium from chernobyl in fungi, mycologist, 1989. p. 3-6

the mutalistic niche. mycorrhizal symbiosis and community dynamics. annual review of ecology, evolution and systematics p1-22 - 2016

how to change your mind;: the new science of psychadelics. 2018. pollan

read. textbook of medical mycology. 2018

proceedings of the national academy of sciences

evolutions of rainbow. 2013. roughgarden

schulters. 2001. plants of the gods

wainwright. moulds in folk medicine. folklore. 1989. p. 162-6

## Fungus
Talk about the opening scene from the last if us and how this is all based on real fungus

Title by Andrew:
**Mosses, Lichens and Fungi in stylised, procedural art pipelines.**

**Workflows for Mosses, Lichens and Fungi in stylised, procedural art pipelines.**

OWN THOUGHTS
**Creating stylized mushroom based on other stylized tutorial to fit to this style**

Purchasable tutorials for stylized style: https://stylizedstation.com/

*I've always been drawn to stylized art, I love the exaggeration of forms and colour being used*

**SONG**
In i skogen sagor & swing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiNYT66np58&ab_channel=MID128

It just feels like a mushroom and being in the forest. You become the mushroom?

Make a stylized mushroom in MAYA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8cSE0nUAmU

## Modelling_Mushrooms

### Panspermia
Panspermia is a scientific hypothesis that suggests life may have originated on one planet and spread to others through space, either by natural means such as meteorites or comets, or artificially by intelligent beings. The idea behind panspermia is that life may be more widespread in the universe than we previously thought, and that it could have originated independently on multiple planets or moons.

The concept of panspermia has been around for centuries, but it wasn't until the 20th century that it gained more scientific attention. In the 1970s, the discovery of microbial lifeforms that could survive in extreme environments such as outer space, led to increased interest in the possibility of panspermia.

Despite the intriguing possibilities of panspermia, there is currently no definitive evidence to support it. The search for life beyond Earth continues, and many scientists believe that the most likely place to find it is on other planets or moons within our own solar system or orbiting other stars. However, the idea of panspermia remains an intriguing and thought-provoking concept in the ongoing search for the origins of life in the universe.

As this sill

### Modelling_Chanterelle

Painting Chanterelle


Final

### Modelling_Bolete

### Modelling_FlyAgaric

### Modelling_Tricholoma_Fulvum-Birch_Knight

Maya Modelling using reference image from the web
(Source image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricholoma_fulvum - 20.04.2023)

UV map for the stem is being flattened out so I don't have to deal with unnatural looking lines on the stem

Baking the higher poly, smoothened out model on top of the low poly in Substance Painter

02:


### Yokaii and Fungus working together
As fungus is extremely smart, they are working together with Yokai and creating new things

### Ophiocordyceps
Ophiocordyceps is a genus of fungi within the family Ophiocordycipitaceae. The widespread genus, first described scientifically by British mycologist Tom Petch in 1931, contains about 140 species that grow on insects.

## Glossary/Beastiary
make a drawing, one version of just the fungi itself with explenations and then another drawing next to it with my weird kodama creature version of that fungi. there needs to be a connection between the distinct powers of the original fungi and my monster version

## Stylized tree by Victoria Zavhorodnia

Maya
Creating the basic shape is easy, simply by using the EP curve tool and then using the sweep mesh to shape the trunk


Final model of tree and it's UV map

Some tretches on the UVs, but thats fine

Using substance Designer, these are the nodes th create the heightmap using generated simple geometrical shapes that remind of a treetrunk

The full map in Substance Designer:

Setting up the materials in Unreal Engine


Creating the canopy

Creating Textures in Adobe Photoshop

Using a new software to make Trees, a free software called Tree It

Setting up the material in Unreal Engine following Victoria Zavhorodnia's tutorials
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BfZSfX6_Go&ab_channel=VictoriaZavhorodnia%28akbutea%29
accessed 16.03.2023

Final model after playing around and changing the material instance

Setting up the different Material instances with the different designs of the canopy

Based on this finished tutorial, how to I make this fit intor our world?

Her examples:

My examples are starting to look like mycelium networks

## Stylized flowers following turotial

Creating geometry to the textures in Maya


Setting up the material instance, changing the brightness of the texture pack and creating a foliage brush

Using foliage brush

## Zbrush Maxon

## Bioluminescent Ghost Mushroom
### Fungal Netherworld

Australia is a land of extremes, of curious organisms with quirky adaptations. Even our ghosts are more perplexing than your regular spook, and you don’t need a Geiger counter or infrared camera to track them down. Ghosts feature fantastically in folklore across the globe, but Australia’s ghost collective has a special fungal addition. Stealing the limelight, or rather the twilight, is the ghost fungus, Omphalotus nidiformis.

Ghost fungi are large, common and conspicuous, yet they manage to escape the gaze of most. As interest in fungi grows in Australia, the ghost fungi is getting a curious new look-in.
from: https://theconversation.com/the-glowing-ghost-mushroom-looks-like-it-comes-from-a-fungal-netherworld-111607

### Luminescent Mushrooms
10 mushrooms that grow in the dark:
https://www.treehugger.com/bioluminescent-fungi-mushrooms-that-glow-in-the-dark-4868794

### Mycena chlorophos

#### 15.03.2023
Thoughts from Adam ->

Signifiers in video games, what certain objects make us immediatly know how to interact with the world. For example:
The red barrel and how we know as the player that if we shoot it, it will blow up

Get peer fedback on work throughout on drawings and other things I am creating to cover a bit of the "collaborative" part of the unit

Figure out an interesting innovation based on my ideas:
Example:
mycelium cntrols the planet? There is a theory that goes like that the mycelium from fungi and that network creted and controls the planet
https://gardenculturemagazine.com/how-mushrooms-and-the-mycelium-network-are-healing-the-world/

Example 2:
Fungi influenced the robots?
The robots want the psychadelic experiences and eat mushrooms

LSD helps people?
The american tests on LSD and how this has helped a lot of people who are on their deathbeds. Under controlled environment, they have taken psychadelics and 90% of these people ended up being comfortable with the idea of death and that we are all a part of this world

To watch and listen to:
- [ ] Dunkan Trussel - family hour, Sophia, rochlin 501
podcast

- [ ] netflix documentary the one with his mum , midgnight gospel mom - mouse of silver

- [ ] Station 11, a post apocalyptic series about a bunch of artists

More: to get more practical work for my projects:
For example when I'm reading a book and the cool chapters, make a quick sketch based on the chapter

The connection of trees and how the speak to each other:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2yBgIAxYs&ab_channel=TED
How trees talk to each other | Suzanne Simard

### The Midnight Gospel
Great inspiration not only with the weirdness of the story that gives me inspiration for the weird mushrooms I will be drawing, but also the artstyle and drawing style is good inspiration.

steal the colour palette of the show. and also the effect of the gritty gradient type of effect

one episode that was amazing was the last one and also when the mother dies, she becomes a shroom

20.03.2023
Feeling stressed, demotivated and a lot of things. It is hard to create something when there are no constrains and I need to figure out a project and base this 100% off my own ideas rather than getting any feedback on the way and throughout. What I need is a gameplan. A simple system that will help me continue.

For example; tonight I will be making some paintings and drawings off mushrooms. This will give me something creativiely. Hopefully it wil help. Will update tomorrow.

21.03.2023

**MYCOLOGY**

Feedback from Andrew: Create a universal shader that will in the end goal create a procedural world with constraints of where specific mushrooms grow.

Pipeline: Here is the mushroom, facts about it and 3D model, also textures. Then this should be generated with slight variations between bents, colour and sizes. It also needs constrainst of how it is being grouped together based on how it would be in real life

Then with this, what I should have is a scene, a simple shrine for example; that then when I press PLAY: it will automatically generate what happens where

The natural continuation from my IP1 is that during this project, not only do I have sockets and other places things will generate, but with the shaders, the mushrooms will actually change shape and size and ect.
GOAL for IP2: In the end: here is the perfect pipeline to create a system where this would work the best to create my mushroom scene based on all of this research of thests and trials I have done. Either I then have figured out the actual perfect pipeline, oooorrr it is a lot of failures but at least I am going somewhere

FOR FINAL: One nice continuation to the final project would be to automatically generate a nice chillout area where the user will find different types of mushrooms, some nice lighting as well as some mythological creature they can be able to learn about an read about

FOR NEXT: Figure out more about shaders and how this can help me: universal shader unreal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBCVb3Bhr0Y ?

## Online Portfolio

It doesn't have to be dark
https://annahollinrake.com/work

Idea for own portfolio: header illustration of projets: make a nice drawing of my projects, basicallly just draw on top of existinng 3D screenshots

### 22.03.2023
Put on job notifications on different platforms.

Look on an Artstation artist and reach out to them. ask for 15 min. of their time to take a look at my portfolio, ask specific questions. "does this look good for environment art"

Get an idea of someones work and the specifics they work. Put a goal down like "this is what I strive for"

Look into specific companies

'Job' section in Artstation

Don#t have the attitude I am ok with any job and I don't care. This will not lead anywhere postiive.
But also remember that each step is the right step when the oppertunities lead to something new

Game Illustrator:
Waste Creative
https://www.waste-creative.com/
Greez works as the game illustrator:
https://www.artstation.com/greez

Atomhawk.com/careers/
Atomhawk gives an actual portfolio guide.

GamesMap UK
shows a map of all companies in the UK

ukie.org.uk
newzoo.com/insights/articles

juegostudio.com/blog/top-gaming-companies-in-uk

NIMONATIONS?
BAFTA Breakthough Brit
Grads in Games

OTHER:
-acedemia
-research grant
-open calls
-exhibition galery artist
-conference

game jams
socials
-funding
-business loans
-grants

Art funding
art council

### RUTH ASAWA: Drawing and Organic Universe

Taking part of an online course about Ruth Asawa and her sculptures

They are very organic and close to nature. like the mycelium of the mushrooms I am making

looks like tree roots

Tree It - Making a Japanese Maple

Modelling Swine and Sallow

## KINOKO

### Playing Kinoko 26.03.2023


Unplayable, I can't get furtther since the game crashes when I speak to people to get hints. should not speak to anyone










### Reading: The future is fungi

p.14 introduction: Nature takes her time. Without rush, sublime and elegant life forms flourish into their truest expression. Nature is creativity unfolding - sculpting, trading, transforming, decomposing, recycling. The kingdom of fungi embodies the pinnacle of this design, underpinning life on Earth for over a billion years. With each fine thread of mycelium, fungi weave the tapestry of the living world.

Fungi are being engineered to increase food production, grow future meat alternatives, create new source for medicine, produce sutainable biomaterials, remediate the environment and change our state of conciousness.

19: Nothing alive exists in isolation. To be alive means to be part of an intricate, spawling web of cause and effect. Our lives are interwoven with that of lants, animals, bacteria and fungi, forming the beating heart of thhe planet we are in partnership with.

p. 21: only 120 000 species of fungi has been identified. Using a complex process called DNA barcoding, scientists estimate that over 6 million fungal species exist in nature, which means 98 percent are still to be discovered, highlighting the untapped potential of mycology.

All mushrooms are fungi, but not all fungi are mushrooms

31: *spores*: Spoeres are the beginning and end of the fungal life cycle.
A theory on the origin of life called panspermia even suggests that the blueprint for life was packaged in a spore and sent through soace to find a home in the universe. While shis is heavily debated, we know that spores can tolerate extreme temperatures , resist radiation and even survive the vacuum of space. in 1988, Russian cosmonauts at the Mir space station noticed that something was growing on the outside of their titanium quarts windows - and eating through it. It turned out to be a fungus.


37: the phrase ´wood wide web´is used to describe the mycelial highways that facilitate the transfer, because they function like the fores´s organic internet. Plants within the network can transfer sugars, hormones, stress signals and carbon.

38: it´s a fungal world, we are just living in it.


59: among dead leaves, on fallen trees, in a field of grass or on cow dung - mushrooms grow everywhere

62: all mushrooms are edible, but some only once


*i imagine a cool character design, an old wizard of some kind or shaman in the woods that use mushrooms as his magic*



118: fungi allow us to form a new connection in out brain and dissolve the rigid boundaries of our minds. a study using the fungal compound psilocybin found that 67 per cent of the participants ranked their experience as one of the top five most meaningful things they have ever done, on par with the birth of a child, death of a loved one, or marriage.

121: psychadelics allow us to transcend our individual identities, and free us from all the ways our minds create stories that do not serve us.

gordon watson - seeking the magic mushroom, life magazine

130: the aesthetics of mushrooms have been represented throughout art and culture. the essence of the mushroom is the counterculture it embodies. mushrooms are a subtle nudge, a playful tease, a quiet rebellion against the expectations of society and government. it represents a thought tribe that priorities freedom, love, expression and self-discovery outside the accepted guardrails we walk between for most of our lives.
mushrooms are an ode to atime we can never return to. a time when the airpulsated with the energy of the misfits and the mavericks, the free thinkers and the free spirits, and the crazy ones who thought they could change the world. but this time it is not the countervulture. it *is* the culture.

166: Fungi can transform a range of organic waste into high-performing materiald of almost any shape, strenght and density. Production of mushroom materials uses less water, energy and land than traditional materials, and there is no waste in this circular process- all the materials can be composted.

169: mycorestoration
mycofiltration, mycoforestry, mycoremediation, mycopesticides, mycopermaculture,

mycodesign and mycofabrication

182: Mycoarchitecture
Mogu, based in Italy are a leading innovator of mycelium-based technologies, materials and products.

185: Mycotextiles. Reishi by MycoWorks New York fashion week 2020

186: Mycopackaging

## New week, stress week? Week before easter:

Source: https://www.instructables.com/Construct-a-Japanese-Torii-Gate-for-Your-Garden/
28.03.2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHrwAacTwo
21:03
The art of Journey GDC video. accessed 30.03.2023
Creating Journey: the lead artist Matt Nava talks about how in the final stages of the game, a very familiar element appears.
"I took inspiration from the Japanese torii gate which is kind of in the Shinto religion i represents kind of wher the sacred space is delineated from profane space and I wanted to have this final level to have this very dreamlike quality where you would feel like you are in a very magical and spiritual zone so that I put this kind of architecture in there to kind of reinforce that idea."


Modelling the Torii Gate

It took around 2 hours to finish both 3d model and the UV unwrapping

Final textures in Substance Painter

Adding in the model in Unreal Eng

Add in: based on the learning of what I have done with the ukranian lady, would I be able to add some canopy here that could be animated in the wind? Hanging moss, ivy, type of things

Creating a torii gate with less personality to fit to the trek up the mountain

## Substance Painter effects ask Andrew:
https://substance3d.adobe.com/community-assets/assets/3dffdad875a5b38fe8382baf3646257b683a82cb

https://substance3d.adobe.com/community-assets/assets/f6b14f73db4297c6ccd74814f652e09c2520a1fb

https://substance3d.adobe.com/community-assets/assets/d4fac368de6c0e5a8cd76c715be3a71897b8d3cc

## Designing the shrine:




Inspiration for Mushrooms in the Shrine:

01

02

(Source from https://www.isasajinja.com/%E8%8F%8C-%E7%A5%9E%E7%A4%BE/ - 20.04.2023)
Also watch this with sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0D0ExdzA4

My model and version:

Final for now:

## Blendshape Blendspace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DST2bMbRxEQ

based on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9NX06mvp2E
Art of Abzu and how fish is not rigged, it is a material

## Whiteboxing my shrine in Unreal Engine 5







### Keeping myself motivated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGbFcGln5So&t=623s&ab_channel=StylizedStation
28.03.2023
11:00

Once you are done modelling, one thing that helps to keep the motivation up is to just pull it into an engine and to see immediatly how the scene could look.

Adding some lighting and simple textures also really helps to set the tone of the scene. FOr example, once some elements have been added, it is easier to take a look and understand what next the scene actually need.

## Stylized style in Substance Designer

Creating a stylized wood at least trying to...

### 29.03.2023
Finished reading How games moves us, useless book

### IP2 with agnieszka 29.03.2023

**storytelling**
when creating the story and trying to direct a character, there are some questions that needs to be answered for the storyteller or the director to get a better idea of the character. not only will this help to develop the story itself, but also drive the narrative forward.

1. who am i?
2. where am i?
3. when is it?
4. where have i just come from?
5. what do i want?
6. why do i want it now?
7. how will i get what i want by doing what?
8. why do i want it now?
9. what will happen if I don't get it now?
10. what must I overcome?

Nothing is successful unless there are elements of something real withing the characters, setting or story.

### Architecture in Digital Games 29.03.2023
by Dr. Gabriele Aroni

Pointy forms makes us uncomfortable by nature, it represents danger

Brian Upton

Anticipairy play: for example a vent, shot the player there is a direction to go

**Environmental storytelling**:
Could be super interesting to set my scene by not telling the player, but they need to see and figure this out by seeing other details hidden in the scene.

Even in historical representations, they need to scale things down. In Assassins Creed the game world is representing Italian cities, but it is scaled down. I not then the plaer would spend several minutes crossing streets and buildings, which they shouldn't do.

Martin Emborg, Ultra Ultra

### Heterotopia
Heterotopia is a concept elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe certain cultural, institutional and discursive spaces that are somehow 'other': disturbing, intense, incompatible, contradictory or transforming. Heterotopias are worlds within worlds, mirroring and yet upsetting what is outside.

## Modelling MoistBois

Swine and Sallow

Also a funny Mixamo test video here of the character dying.

### Meeting with Oliver 06.04.2023

Creating more stories based on fungi. Change of direction regarding our choise of mushrooms. We are now doing mushrooms that have astronger connection to trees than just pixking random mushrooms as we have done earlier, we have only done the fungi that we simply think look cool.

Giving characteristics and a stronger story to the mushrooms now is very helpful for me to make the sketches. Remember now better when I am doing the drawings is that they will be made into puppets and I should perhaps do some research for puppets more as the body parts works in a different way.

#### First
Don Quito,

a bit of a nutcase, but he is happy

Mycelium moustache

candlesnuff fungus sword

#### Sula
Angry and hot tempered,

red cap goblin inspired

#### Milkbug

Big nose with snot

Happy

## Fantastic Fungi - The mushroom movie 09.04.2023
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8258074/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_fungi
Watched this amazing Netfflix documentary film which not only went through every point of interest sthe book Entangled Life did, but also amazinlgky enough sold the idea about trying out magic mushrooms for my mom.

After reading, watching and researching so much about mushrooms and fungi as I have done, I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to speak about mushrooms without bringing up the påsychadelic aspect of it.

## More Trees, trollskjegg and add this to the torii gate?
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunskjegg

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lav


### Art_Forms_In_Nature-Ernst_Haeckel

page 14: Consequently, the pages of *art forms in nature* took on a further dimension for Haeckel. The fact that the illustrations are 'aesthetic,' beautiful, and that this beauty is found in the smallest facets of nature- such as unicellular organisms or in the meduseae of the sea- demonstrated to Haeckel that one finds in the smallest living things what distinguishes, or what at least should be distinguished, humans in their judgements: "spirit." The beauty of these miniscule creatures revealed to him the natural quality of one of the largest forms of life- uman beings. Haeckel maintained that to be part of nature is to be an element in and the result of the evolutionary process. Accordingly, the phylogeny of forms is simultaneously the phylogeny of the spirit.

Willow Tree Canopy

Treetrunk and UV map to make it tilable
Trunk made with EP curve tool and Sweep Mesh

Canopy for the Tree

Transfering attributes

Creatiing the willow in Unreal using the Material instances I have created from before

*Add in here the process images that for some reason didn't want to upload as I was working on the trees*

### Meeting with Oliver regarding our mushrooms and stories 13.04.2023
I have created drawings based on the stories he made. Then we had a meeting regarding these drawings and finally perfecting and implementing them to the story of the theatre and puppet show.
*add here image from the meeting*



## Stylized Effects

Modelling the simple effect in Maya

Setting up how the material animates in Unreal Engine

Adding Stylized effects to the world to give it more personality and making it feel more alive and vibrant


Following this tutorial: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HHHAcaiQkI)
As the wind lines were not going the correct direction that I wished for and googling it directly was not very easy to find the specific rotation tool I wanted for the material, I set up a Cascade particle system that works very nicely and the way I want it to look like

The input data in the cascade particle system is simply this round white gradient circle, and the main effects are in the particle system.

The flow looks much nicer on the screen than what I had before

### Stylized_Effects_Poof

Following this French guy's tutorials on youtube is surprisingly helpful, direct to the point and even though it is in a different language, what he does is very clear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiw1slB4Mdo - 01.05.2023

Setting up a "poof" system that will hapen when the user eats the mushroom and things will start to appear

Inspiration for poof, in sims 4, there are garden gnomes that poof here and there for the player to interact with

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

How it looks in the scene 01

02

### Stylized_Effects_Water

Again, watching this French guy's tutorial is really good and the automatic translation of his french accent is ok as well, at least to understand the basic things he is saying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix7K_IubTig - 01.05.2023

Material setup 1

How the Material instance looks so far in the scene

How the final material setup looks like
The main add points here effect coming from the shoreline and how it understands the effects it is supposed to give to the landscape touching and other static meshes

How the final work looks in the scene

A closeup of a box in the water to see how the shoreline effect works on the object

The scene so far:

### Stylized_Effect_Rain

Adding rain to the scene to break up the trek the player will take up the mountain and add some interesting things. Kind of like CD projects red rule of 45 seconds, something interesting needs to happen every 45 seconds

## PBR Materials ()

## Setting up the scene

**Adding other assets to the scene to make it more complete and feel final**

Using Maya to quickly 3D model it out. Simple cube with extruded details on top. Used the Deform - Nonlinear - Bend tool to make it curved.

Used the same saved smart material in Substance Painter I saved from creating the Hokora statues

The automatic collision creator in Unreal engine worked very nicely so when the character player walks across it, it feels smooth and natural

**Adding the Komainu Lion dogs I created for CG Industry Pipeline in the first semester**

Based on these images I can see that the one with the open mouth should be on the right hand side and the one with the closed mouth should be on the left
From : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komainu 18.04.2023

From: https://yokai.com/komainu/ 18.04.2023

Placing the Komainus in their designated spots

Using the tutorial I used for the wind effect that ended badly as I needed to create a particle effect instead, I still got a good use of the material lueprint as I could add it as effects to my things

## Setting up the scene TO DO

- [ ] add cherry blossoms to the wind effect at the bottom of the hill
- [ ] Make another interesting hue for the colour of the grass
- [ ] make another orii gate that has less personality

## Style Guide

Colour inspiration from Adobe colour

## Final Details

As I used the empty template, I had to manually import the walking blueprint from the first person world's content browser and also set down the walking speed from the default's 600cm/s to 300cm/s to slow it down to a walking speed

### Using Foliage Brush to add in all of my details

I now see that adding my mushroom characters that I have designed might be a bit too much and I am considering to completely cut it out

## Animating the road to the Shrine

Inspired by this route the player needs to take to reach to a shrine in Ghosts of Tsushime, I wish to have a video of the player going to the shrine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izl2EqQ2y1A

Also inspired by the magical mountain top in breath of the wild

Also inspired by the pathway the player needs to take to High Hrothgar in Skyrim

Making the storyboard to show the trail of the player

Using the landscaping tool in Unreal

Painting the pathway

Designing the beginning of the level

The plan is to divide some areas for different themes to make it more interesting for the player to look at. For example, I want to use the cherry blossom trees only in the beginning, representing spring and a new beginning.

Then as the player moves up the pathway, the colours will slowly change

Lastly, at the top of the shriene will be the beautiful magical shrine

inspiration:
https://blog.japanwondertravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/jezael-melgoza-poA1y52Nav0-unsplash-scaled.jpg
https://blog.japanwondertravel.com/what-is-torii-gate-25135

## Mistakes and learning outcomes

Thinking a 45 min YouTube tutorial will take 45 minutes. It will take 3 hours.

I keep jumping back and forth with things. Once I have finished one tree and I'm happy with it, I jump to something else rather than finishing off this section of the project. I should work on finishing things off really

I should have worked in a more strict pipelin. I had several issues with my landscape where I wanted to add erosion or height using the landscaping tool, but Unreal kept crashing. Probably because I had started do add a lot of materials and details so unreal just couldn't handle when I wanted to edit the landscape

## Portfolio_Feedbacks

In March, I reahced out to various people in the industry to receive some feedback on my portfolio work.

## Writing

Starting with worldbuilding and explaining the reasons to all of my things and how they fit together in this world. Future, robots, dystopian/utopian future, how mushrooms help int his world as well. E.g. Mushroom break down plastic etc.

then explain the style I am going for, the reason to why **stylized style** fits and so on

Style guide of my own project

Setting up the scenes. Environment design?

Why the climb of the mountain, the relevance of that

Procedural work and finalising scene

**ASK ADAM**
?? My research started with a lot of mushrooms, fungi and mycelium and now I have done quite a lot environment design and art. How do I connect my research with the actual outcomes?

Otcomes:
No need for too much research for now, even though this can be taken further.

For example what does the climb up the mountain mean? There is so much historic background behind how temples are on top of mountains with beautiful views and so on.

How do I bring in the mushrooms as a relevance into my world?
I am not sure how relevant it actually is, but sometimes it is allowed to argue as a game designer that this looks cool = I want to show this.

Sinsere calm moments in a vitual world. As the world around us is crumbling, a lot of people maybe try to escape reality into virtual world ((READY PLAYER ONE)) and this can be implemented into my world. the reason to why things are.

Step 1: Clean up the scene

look into designs of zen gardens and reasons to how they are designet the way they are.

Maybe have one final beautiful tree in the mdidle with myceloim that is the true spirit of the forest we look up to.

Design this and set the scene up

CLEAN IT UP, then do the writing

mickgothin- something is needed at a particular time

maybe the mushroom man with the watering can is not alive, but it is the robots version of a statue. The robots memory of discovering a type of human. humans today make metal and concrete statues, they make organic

### Niagara Systems

### Conclusion and Further

This has been the most rewarding unit so far in regard to seeing my personal progression. It has been fun to continue working with Nathan and to see our world grow.

Further:
I would like to work on Zbrush and Substance Designer

In conclusion, Interdisciplinary Practice 2 has been one of the most rewarding units. Over the course of the past semester, I have grown within my skills and abilities in 3D modelling, texturing and animation. Seeing the final results play out together in Unreal Engine 5 fills me with immense excitement.

One of the highlights of IP1 that translated into IP2 was to be able to delve into the rich world of Shinto traditions and exploring the various mythologies filled with Kami and Yokais. Trying to create a unique fusion between these ancient traditions and the world of fungi has added a depth to my work. Combining these two elements, I have tried to embrace a multidisciplinary approach, as this has broaden my skillset.

Looking back at the process I have gone through, I am filled with a sense of accomplishment. There has been quite a lot of challenges with Unreal Engine particularly. Moving forward, I want to expand my knowledge with the software and expand my technical skills. Adding on these technical skills, I want to gain more knowledge in particularly ZBrush and Substance Designer as well.

I am looking forward to see how I can bring the elements of Shinto traditions and mushrooms for my final master.

## Music
Trying to find a calm and ambient tune to fit to the trial

https://opengameart.org/content/forest-whisper-theme

https://opengameart.org/content/lost-in-the-meadows

https://opengameart.org/content/calm-ambient-1-synthwave-4k

https://opengameart.org/content/crickets-general-calm-ambient-music

https://opengameart.org/content/calm-piano-1-vaporware

https://opengameart.org/content/calm-ambient-3-lifewave-2k

https://opengameart.org/content/calm-ambient-2-synthwave-15k

https://opengameart.org/content/elven-shrine

## Final Touches?

Add cherry blossom leaves to the wind in the first section

See if I can add colour tint to the world

Add colour to the poof effect at the end

Add shimmer as one enters the shrine