# How can embracing nostalgia create a unique and nostalgic aesthetic in modern 3D Games?
### Thematic: Time Travel
### Innovative practices in game art
### Poppy Wade
## Primary research - Responding to the thematic and brief
When looking at innovative practices as a whole, I first focused on what a innovation means to me; something unique using methods that I haven't seen used before. In this project I would like to explore storytelling inside the framework of unique and nostalgic elements in media and games. Through this, I am able to explore the thematic of 'Time Travel' while focusing on innovation in terms of stylistic choices in 3D. As 'Time Travel' as a storytelling device isn't something that resonates with me personally, I would like to explore how it can be used in regards to feelings of nostalgia and how the visual style reflects those ideas.
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### Creating a stylisic vision
### Tanya Schultz & Nicole Andrijevic - Sweet Sweet Galaxy
Australian artist Tanya Schultz works as Pip & Pop to create immersive installations from a range of materials including sugar, glitter, candy, plastic flowers and everyday craft materials. Their installation 'Sweet Sweet Galaxy' resonated with me as I think it could make an incredibly unique environment to impliment into a game, as well as being true to my personal style and aesthetics.
###### *Sweet Sweet Galaxy*, Smiths Row, Bury St
###### *Journey in a dream*, Shinsegae Gallery
###### *When Happiness Ruled*, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
###### *We Miss You Magic Land*, Childrens Art Centre Brisbane
'Often ephemeral, their meticulously constructed and highly detailed works embrace notions of abundance, utopian dreams and fleeting pleasure. They are fascinated with ideas of paradise and wish-fulfillment described in folk tales, mythologies and cinema.'^1^
###### *Candy Land* Meow Wolf Santa Fe
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### 'Zelda: Breath of the Wild'
'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild' is a Nintendo switch game that was released in 2017 that was intended to reinvent 'The Legend of Zelda' franchise into a game that focuses on exploration as the leading game play element. Due to this, the map of the game is incredibly big, meaning tacticle style choices had to be made to ensure that the game could run smoothly.
The game combines traditional cel shading rendering with pastel colours and soft lighting to craft a hyper-stylised world that blends realistic, cutting-edge graphical capabilities with artistic visuals.
###### Great Fairy fountain
###### Princess Zelda
###### Gurudo Town
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### 'Ooblets', lowpoly style and shaders
###### Gameplay of the main town
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6RcMRQo7Rl0?start=18" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Ooblets^2^ is a Nintendo Switch exclusive game that focuses on exploration, farming and creatures. Your main goal in the game is to interact with NPCs to gather a number of creatures called 'ooblets' who are your pets. In my own project, I would like to adopt a similar 'low poly' style to the 3D environment, along with the cel shading that is more cartoony than 'Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'.
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### Japanese artist : Chikuwamiel
Instagram account : https://www.instagram.com/chikuwamiel/
Chikuwamiel^3^ is an instagram artist based in Japan who creates fantastical paintings using acrylic and canvas. Their work is incredibly detailed, and shows a variety of creatures. I want to include the aesthetics of their paintings in my concept art, and use it for colour pallet inspiration when creating my 3D world. I also think that the art is reflective of the 3D insallations by Tanya Schultz & Nicole Andrijevic in colour and theme, along with giving the viewer the same feeling of wonder and nostalgia.
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### Aurora Robson 'The Great Indoors'
Aurora Robson is a multi-media artist known for her work that aims to intercept the plastic waste stream in New York. Her work is a representation of the recurring nightmares she had as a child which she hybridizes with forms found in nature.
'The Great Indoors' is a piece comprised of approximately 15,000 PET bottles cleaned up from the streets of New York. They are airbrushed with tinted polycrylic and riveted together with aluminum rivets. The installation also includes individual sculptures that light up at night via solar powered LEDs.^4^
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q_NS1pJQfVc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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## Secondary research - Contextualising 'Time Travel' as a thematic
### Nostalgia as a psychological time machine : Krystine Bacho
Krystine Batcho (Ph.D) is a professor at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. She studies nostalgia and the relationship it has with people who have experienced childhood trauma. Through her studies, she has found that people who are prone to feelings of nostalgia excel at maintaining personal relationships and choose healthy social ways of coping with their troubles.
In her academic article: 'Nostalgia: Retreat or Support in Difficult Times?' Bacho suggests that 'nostalgic reflection may provide the consolation that comes from appreciation of the transience of time and circumstance, and it may bring to mind adaptive coping options learned during an unfavorable past.'^5^ To me, this implies the idea that people who experienced difficulties in childhood develop a maladaptive relationship to things that trigger nostlagia. This could be as simple as a game they played as a child, or more abstract things such as daydreams and the imagaination.
Bacho also relates nostalgia to a time machine in her article 'Nostalgia: A Mental Time Machine'. Here, she describes how 'Childhood reflects the enduring desire for the ideal—life without cruelty, suffering, betrayal, or loss.'^6^ I want to explore this concept in my project, using the artistic references I have gathered to create a 3D space that visualises the idea of a place that reflects the imagination of a child.
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### What elements of old videogames brings feelings of nostalgia?
many games of the early 2000's are said to have held the test of time against modern iterations. One standout of this era was the use of cel shading in 3D games. The offical Adobe website describes cel shading animation as a 'highly stylised visual artform that uses computers to give 3D animations a hand-drawn, 2D appearance.'^7^ The distinctive style first emerged and is commonly associated with Japanese anime films of the late 1990's. Along with this, lowpoly styles of 3D modelling were popular because of the minimal polygon count, meaning they took less processing power. Similarly to the way cel shading was used, it provided a style as well as having the added benefit of simple optimis
###### 'The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker' (2002) released for Nintendo GameCube
###### 'Jet Set Radio' (2000) released for Sega Dream Cast
Popularity for the style grew in the 2000's as the demand for 3D animated games increased. Companies needed to create cost effective games that could run steadily on early video game consoles of the time, such as the Nintendo Game Cube, and early versions of the Playstation.The technology hadn't been developed to explore the hyper-realistic RPG's that are favoured nowadays. Attempts to create realism (while impressive at the time) looked similar to each other and haven't held up. In contrast, games from the time that adopted stylised cel shading, have a timeless feel to them.
###### 'Okami' (2006) released for Sony Playstation 2
###### 'Ninja Gaiden' (2004) released for Xbox
In my project, developing a unique low poly style helps fit the breif of time travel while being able to explore it outside of storytelling.
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## Initial iterations - Creating concepts to develop later
### Mindmapping and building reference boards
### 'Photobashing' references together
To help create a starting point for my environment thumbnails, I used photoshop to edit together different images of Tanya Schultz & Nicole Andrijevic's work. They look very messy as images but I found it helped speed up my iterative workflow and meant I had unique images to draw from instead of directly tracing the reference material.
### Thumbnailing environment concepts - composition and the rule of thirds
When sketching out thumbnails I decided to defer from my edited references slightly as I wanted to consider the rule of thirds which suggests that 'if you divide your composition into thirds, either vertically or horizontally, and then place focal areas of your scene at the meeting points of them, you will get a more pleasing arrangement and layout for your compositions' ^8^
###### Example of the rule of thirds- Bill Maynard ^9^
###### Sketch before adjustments
###### Sketch after considering the rule of thirds composition
### Modelling my game world
To begin in Maya, I first entered my image plane reference to work from.
Using sketchfab, I was able to find an asset pack of 3D models I could impliment into my world.
<div class="sketchfab-embed-wrapper"> <iframe title="Low Poly Nature Free ✓" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; xr-spatial-tracking" xr-spatial-tracking execution-while-out-of-viewport execution-while-not-rendered web-share src="https://sketchfab.com/models/b9b9d627d62b46418ba61de1cc1df557/embed"> </iframe> <p style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; margin: 5px; color: #4A4A4A;"> <a href="https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/low-poly-nature-free-b9b9d627d62b46418ba61de1cc1df557?utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=share-popup&utm_content=b9b9d627d62b46418ba61de1cc1df557" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; color: #1CAAD9;"> Low Poly Nature Free ✓ </a> by <a href="https://sketchfab.com/a_l_e_x_a_n_d_e_r?utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=share-popup&utm_content=b9b9d627d62b46418ba61de1cc1df557" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; color: #1CAAD9;"> _Alexandr </a> on <a href="https://sketchfab.com?utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=share-popup&utm_content=b9b9d627d62b46418ba61de1cc1df557" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; color: #1CAAD9;">Sketchfab</a></p></div>
As the asset pack wasn't very organised, I spent some time rearranging my outliner to help in later steps when building my world. At this point I also added materials to my imported 3D models to add my own pastel colours ontop, and so they would fit my theme.
The first step in building was to put together rough shapes to build up my terrain. I started on the focal point of my reference image, which shows a cave. I also opened the Arnold render in Maya so I could get an accurate view of my colours, as the Maya veiwport distorts what colour materials you apply to your models. This was a very helpful window to keep open while I developed my game world and it meant the colours of my models change around a lot. What is seen in the Maya veiwport is similar to the inital sketch, before the final render of a drawing
###### Model in Maya Veiwport
###### Model in Arnold Renderview
###### Continuing to build up foundatins of my game world.
Once the rock foundations were in place, I next moved onto add flowers, textural bumps and extra details such as trees to the model.
###### Plant models before being retextured
###### initial colours of the plants, which later changed to pastel versions.
###### Inital colours in the renderveiw
I wanted to have a large variety of plant and grass models in my world as the inpiration art pieces are incredibly maximalist and busy, but I also wanted to balance that with a feeling of calmness.
###### flower models
Another influential aspect of my research I tried to include in my model was the amount of texture the source sculptures have. I added the pastel balls on before placing my foliage.
###### Model with added texture, showing the various models I used on the side.
###### Final model with foliage, rendered in Arnold renderview
### Close ups of the world
### Final project review
Overall, I feel that my model is reminicent of the research I did surrounding Tanya Schultz & Nicole Andrijevic's Sweet Sweet Galaxy. I am pleased with the way my final game world came out, and I do feel as though it channels the nostalgic 'dream world' I was aiming for. In the future, I would like to make my own models rather than using remade ones as I would be able to make it more unique and innovative to the purposes of my project.
### Bibliography
1. pip-and-pop. (2015). pip & pop sweet sweet galaxy. [online] Available at: https://www.pipandpop.com.au/sweet-sweet-galaxy [Accessed 7 Mar. 2023].
2. Ooblets (2022). Ooblets. [online] Nintendo of Europe GmbH. Available at: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Ooblets-2209603.html [Accessed 8 Apr. 2023].
3. chikuwamiel ｜ちくわミエル (2020). chikuwamiel ｜ちくわミエル (@chikuwamiel) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/chikuwamiel/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2023].
4. obson, A. (2014). Aurora Robson. [online] Aurora Robson. Available at: https://www.aurorarobson.com/the-great-indoors [Accessed 8 Apr. 2023].
5. Jstor.org. (2013). Nostalgia: Retreat or Support in Difficult Times? on JSTOR. [online] Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.3.0355?searchText=childhood+trauma+and+nostalgia&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dchildhood%2Btrauma%2Band%2Bnostalgia&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Add89fa8ac35e9e858148521cd70d4116&seq=2 [Accessed 15 Jun. 2023].
6. Psychology Today. (2014). Nostalgia: A Mental Time Machine. [online] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/longing-nostalgia/201405/nostalgia-mental-time-machine [Accessed 8 Apr. 2023].
7. Adobe.com. (2017). Cel Shading - A Comprehensive Expert Guide | Adobe. [online] Available at: https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/animation/discover/cel-shading.html#:~:text=Cel%20shading%20animation%20is%20a,games%20and%20Japanese%20anime%20films. [Accessed 7 Apr. 2023].
8. Stewart, J. (2017). Quick Guide to the Rule of Thirds for Artists and Photographers. [online] My Modern Met. Available at: https://mymodernmet.com/rule-of-thirds-definition/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2023].
9. Maynard, B. (2020). Rule of Thirds in Photography | Make It & Break It - Cool Wildlife. [online] Cool Wildlife. Available at: https://coolwildlife.com/wildlife-photography-shooting-tips/rule-of-thirds-in-photography/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2023]
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