Resonance and Consistency in Design.

Visual consistency is something that has been of interest to me recently. I recently purchased The Art of Journey, a wonderfully full book, which clearly shows the visual development of the game, for each segment - (Character, Architecture, Landscapes, and so on...).

The harmonising patterns on the clothes of the game's protagonist, and the designs of the enemies, structures and architecture, all help to the inform the player about the world; It allows you to understand that these beings and structures have all evolved, or came to be, together.

work of Matthew Nava

work of Matthew Nava

As you can see here, Journey's artist, Matthew Nava,  uses pattern as one technique to conform the visual assets of the game. To me this really helped immerse the player in the game world and fully appreciate it's existence.

work of Emrah Elmasli

work of Emrah Elmasli

This concept artwork for "Fable 3" also demonstrates this use of visual style. The designs are so connected that the townspeople almost look like the spawn of the buildings they inhabit.

I think for adaptation this concept could be very useful. You can see the technique demonstrated in books like The Skilful Huntsman - in which design is held paramount within the adaptation.

Because this project is interested on the adaptation of an entire fictional world, I will be researching further into this idea of harmonising visuals to provide a more understood imagined atmosphere.

To kickstart the research I attempted some different designs to consider the harmonising of trees with clouds.

So I'm going to use some of these designs as fundamentals for the visual feel of an environment. Although some of them look too generic to influence an interesting visual style.