Unit 13 FMP Year 2

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Science vs Religion Mind Map

Fantasy vs Sci-fi Mind Map

Project Proposal

Candidate Name	Dorian Savy
Candidate Number	20063965
Pathway	Game Development
Project Title	Final Major Project

Section 1: Review of Progress and Achievement so far

Through my second year, I have been gradually improving when it comes to gathering research for my projects and I’ve also been improving on my ability to create 3d models. In all the group work I’ve been involved in, I try to fill my role to the best of my ability to finish the work on time. I strive to make high quality final pieces for projects, while maintaining a large volume of research from both secondary and primary sources. I think I am better at working with 3D models compared to 2D drawings and concept art.

Section 2: Project Concept

My final major project theme will revolve around the popularity and relationship between Fantasy and Science-fiction. I plan to make a 3D animation using 3DS Max, adobe photoshop, adobe premiere and the audio software Audacity. I will be looking into different distinct character designs that define the two genres, I will also be looking into the different sub-genres within both genres and I will also look into the history genre, which will all affect how I design my animation. For my animation the story will mainly be based on the popularity between the two genres.

Section 3: Evaluation of Concept

For this project, I will be doing an action plan to help set myself short term goals for completing certain sections of my FMP. I will also be doing weekly evaluations to summarize what I’ve done during each week of my FMP, so I can show how I’m progressing and to show the reasoning behind any choices I make during my FMP.

Section 4: Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography

Primary: Survey Secondary: Internet sources

Primary Research

For my primary research I made a short survey

For the first question of my survey, most of the people that answered chose Fantasy over Science-fiction.

For the second question of my survey, most of the people that answered believe that Fantasy and Science-fiction should mix together.

For the third question of my survey, some people said they would live in a sci-fi world because its more realistic, there’s robots and time travel, while two other choice a fantasy world because they enjoy fantasy themes and like stories that involve magic and other races.

For the fourth question of my survey some people a fantasy world and sci-fi world meeting would either be weird, have potential for an interesting story, have enhanced races and be similar to Star wars, while one wasn’t sure what would happen.

For the fifth question of my survey, most of the people that answered think a Science-fiction army would would win against a Fantasy army.

Secondary Research

Contextual

Fantasy and Science-fiction are both popular genres that are very diverse. These genres are often put together as ‘’speculative fiction’’ as these genres incorporates a variety of a sub-genres. Those who doesn’t really read or watch Fantasy or Science-fiction are unaware that these genres are very different.

The following terms are used to label the parts and sub-genres in both Fantasy and science-fiction.

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that has no basis in reality, as concepts such as magic and mythical creatures only exist within fantasy.

Epic Fantasy

Epic Fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy that often involves battles for occupation of a nation, an empire or the entire world. This sub-genre profoundly relies on archetypal myths and the scuffle between a few good individuals against the awe-inspiring forces of wickedness. This sub-genre is best embodied by the classic The Lord of The Rings series, which was inscribed by the author J.R.R Tolkien.

Historical Fantasy

Historical Fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy that portrays historical events with fantasy elements added to the events or myths are given some historical elements.  For example, Stephen R. Law head’s bestselling Pendragon Cycle are Arthurian novels which try to add historical accuracies with solid fantastical elements.

Contemporary Fantasy

Contemporary Fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy which proposes that magic exists in our current world, and that often struggles with contemporary matters. A good example of contemporary fantasy.

Urban Fantasy

Urban Fantasy is a subgroup of contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy is often set in a contemporary city. Usually coexisting with the familiar city life is a secret magical aspect of the city, which frequently involves magical creature.

Science Fiction

Science Fiction is a genre that often represents predictions for the future, often depicting technology that could exist in the possible future.

Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of sci-fi that explores the fusion between man and machine. An element within this sub-genre is the perfection virtual reality technology. In a lot of cyberpunk novel, characters are able to interact with computers in a 3-dimensional graphic environment. The virtual environment feels like a physical landscape. Societies in this sub-genre are often anarchic and feudal, while being set in an urban environment.

Military Science Fiction

Military Science Fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that heavily involves armed forces, with technology that could exist in the future. Some examples include David Feintuch’s Seafort Saga novels and William Keith’s.

Alternate Universe Science Fiction

Alternate Universe Science Fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction, puts forward the idea that for every decision made or event that has occurred, there is an alternate universe where the decision or the event occurred in a different way. An example of this is Steven Gould’s book Wildside, the story presents a contemporary parallel world where high school seniors pass through a portal to a primeval Earth that was never inhabited by humans.

Space Opera

Space Opera is a sub-genre of science fiction that is about high adventures in space, usually involving encounters with beautiful women and bug-eyed monsters. Some examples include Flash Gordon which is a vintage space opera and Star Trek which is a sophisticated, contemporary space opera.

History of Fantasy

Within a few decades, Fantasy has professed itself as a well-established genre in the public eye. Where exactly did humanities captivation with fantasy stories commences?

This depends on what requirements must be met in a piece of literature to be considered part of the fantasy genre. In realism, some of the world’s primitive stories of humanity and myths, should be measured as fantasy. Stories about the world’s creation, the gods & the goddesses and the heroes fighting beasts, these are traditional myths that set the foundation for our forefathers’ love for imagination.  ‘’The Epic of Gilgamesh’’ and ‘’Homer’s The Odyssey’’ are considered the first pieces of Fantasy as far as literatures goes.

Other stories that are often looked at for their fantasy quality, include stories like Beowulf, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur.

If one ‘s being inclusive, one list books as Edmund Spenser’s The fairy queen, Jonathan Swith Gulliver’s Travel’s and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. However, the works which would create concept of modern genre started appearing in mid-18th century England

Without any doubt, Fairy tales are the roots of modern fantasy genre. Literary beauty in the style of fairy tale was found by a Scottish author, George Mcdonald, best known for, The Princess and the Goblin. His legacy lives on, through the work of authors like Lewis Carroll, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Madeline L’Engle and MacDonald who was Carroll’s mentor. He urged him to publish the children’s story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice’s stories were enjoyed by everyone, of all ages, children and adult alike, the old and the young.  A century later, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis mentions MacDonald as a major literary influence. This influence, shows, connections to the world of fairy tales.

Readers of the genre that Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sparked, which lit the fire of modern fantasy that was expected. While The Hobbit, which was seemingly aiming towards writings for children, The Lord of the Rings didn’t prove to be the case at all. The attention of adult readers, it grasped, massively, brought many millions into Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth, which was incredibly immersive. Tolkien obsessively created his world, of an abundance of creations, filled up with imagined languages, incredible species, and history. This intensity of world-building sets these books apart, from, fairy tales, to the mythology, and the children’s story predecessors.

Tolkien challenged the concept that fairy tales and all fantasy stories were solely created for children, just as exactly as Macdonald did.  “On Fairy-Stories,” in his essay, he makes comparison of them to old Victorian furniture, which were filled in little children’s nurseries at the time: In the end “Fairy-stories banished in this way, were so cut totally off from a full adult art, that it was ruined.

History of Science Fiction

Science fiction’s records truly starts before science Fiction, itself, started to take shape, as a genre.  Where, Man passes through past the boundaries of the world, as in depicted in scenarios and old texts, where man dives into space and the cosmos, far beyond, our wildest imagination.

Humanity looked to the stars, and asked that very burning question, that we still do today. “Are we alone?”, well, before the renaissance.

“True History”, portrays a man who voyages beyond the skies and the stars to eyewitness an epic fight amid the People of the Moon with the People of the Sun, which was written by Greek writer, Lucian. A royalty named Kaguya comes from the moon to the Earth, but only to head back to join her folks, further on. This is in the Japanese Story, of the ” The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”.

Sprang straight out of the “The Ebony Horse” science fiction story, found in stories like One thousand One nights, which shows a man-made horse using just one simple little twist of a key, could carry a wagon past the heavesn, and far towards the depths of the universe and  and far beyond.

We see, an prehistoric city, which constructed a mechanism, used by king solomon to imprison djinn, depicted in another story “The City of Brass”, consisted of an abandoned technology, which was filled up with living puppets, minus puppeteers, which constructed and built automatons – man.

The miracles, of these old stories, does not credit science at all. It rather, depicts these machineries and extra-terrestrials, seen as magical and charms, that the product of alchemy and magic is a creation of gears and parts of man, made by man.

If we look at Dante, the author in “The Divine Comedy”. A series of impressive poems, where Dante so cleverly plummets the depths of Hell, all hidden below planet Earth’s crust, at the core, but to only emerge onto the planet’s other side, and ascending up the “mountain of Purgatory” towards the Heavenly Spheres – “souls of Heaven”, consisted within each planet in the sky.

The Iconography, resembling the clarification for space and the structure of the Earth’s core is spiritual in nature, later written by Jules Verne and HG, when the religious concepts were removed.

And with” Age of Reason”, the original science fiction stories was now in full swing.

The Age of Reason

Europe alleged that they have been able to reach a whole new height of human understanding, within the first ten years, after the Italian Renaissance. Addressing the issues of science, was within their capabilities. With, “The nature of the cosmos”, and its’ theories, being published by Galileo and Copernicus, and Clockwork designs of the helicopter, which had been earlier designed by Leonardo than Vinci, In Vogue, we saw Science, now in.

The colossal structures far reaching beyond the clouds, which is now already known, to them, for the very first time, led to the begging of this Question, of which so many asked “What comes next?” How long do we wait to get there?

At this time, we see the history of science fiction beginning, right there, emerging, and so begins the science fiction’s history.

Authored by Johannes Kepler Somnium of 1634 The Man in the Moone of 1968 by Francis Godwin, are earliest examples of science fiction.

The story “Somnium”, depicting a boy being pulled towards the moon, Levania, featuring as  an island in the sky  is more religiously inspired, of the two science fiction stories, where both depicts protagonists on route to the moon.

But looking at Godwin, his science fiction comes as rather an adventure-novel, depicting a character and its adventures, who dives the realms and depths of space, encountering an incredibly insane, intense sights along the way.

The potentials of the new kind of unique civilizations living far across and beyond the sky, derived from the many adventure stories, that the voyages of the world inspired, led to the development of a vast potentials of new unique civilizations, existing beyond the skyline.  In abstract ways, we do often describe science and space, with space itself, as a description of being full of air, or eather, which seems quite a little bizarre, to our modern way of seeing it, nowadays.

In another adventure, where the adventurer, saw a different world situated in the North Pole – an entire civilization who has successfully survived, beating the bitter cold, freezing ice, as depicted in the “The Blazing World (1966) by Margareth Cavendish. It shows that adventures were a re-occurring topic, science fiction’s early days.

Adventures where all plunges into the deep Earth underneath our feet, such as in La Vie, authored by De Patot Les Adventures, The Adventures of de Groenland by the priest reverand , Cordelier Pierre de Mésange  of  1720.

We can see there, the Spirit of adventure as a predominant ruler.

The Modern Prometheus

The first stories, truly breaking, the traditional science fiction novel, back then, was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a gothic novel, now very well known, and highly regarded, as a valuable and very important entry in the science fiction’s history.

Liberated from the conformities of the world, whereby focusing on science, enabling writers to create the means of adventure, the extraordinary abilities, to go places, any places, possibly imaginable, without any limitations of the mind. We can see that the majority of writers didn’t take or keep science to Earth, saw them, cleverly use it to escape from the mundanities.

Are we entreating on Gods domain to create life? Will there be consequences, trespassing it? Such question was posed by Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley’s wife, who asked the big question: Just what exactly is awaiting us if science carries on advancing?

The now, many unions, we see, between science fiction and horror, which was seen for the very first time in “Frankenstein”.

Mr Victor Frankenstein was a man, who was determined to create life derived from nothingness. Victor successfully created and brought to life, an abominable and hideous creature but abandons it after creating it. This led the creature to harbour monstrous anger and resentment against Victor with dire consequences.

Becoming the predecessor of innumerable stories, depicting when technology and science developments goes wrong, which disastrously spirals out of control from man-kind’s hands. Frankenstein broke ground, and for the first time, leaving us, questioning the consequences of scientific advancements.

Many writers attempted to exploit the Frankenstein trend like in Jane C. Loudon, with her fiction ” The Mummy” which depicting the story of  the Egyptian mummy, who  resurrected around 2126, but differently, with cheers to the cutting-edge scientific technology, in comparison to Frankenstein’s  abomination, shows a resurrected mummified body, who seems to be very much chilled at coming back, and with a desire  to make the world a better place .So we can say that Science fiction’s history isn’t just simply expressed, in breakthrough narratives.

Jules Verne

From here on, novelists divided science fiction into two. Some became the means for limitless imaginable adventures plus new experiences. While the undesirable consequences of scientific advancement and understanding, were focused on, and depicted in others.

Adventures was Jules Verne’s favourite.

Jules Verne used light science fiction as justification for an entire new and exciting world to be explored.

As depicted in “The Journey to the Centre of the Earth” of 1864, we see an assemblage of adventurers make their incredible journey , bravely diving underneath the Earth surface, and finding themselves in a whole new land, teaming with prehistoric creatures and an abundance of prehistoric fauna. while many stories in the likes of Simon Tyssot de Patot), which depicts a hollow earth, predates “The journey to the centre of Earth.”   There were various and numerous knock-offs from Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Earth” Story, which made possible, through Jules popularization of the genre, which began its’ emergence, in novels and short fiction.

Next, Jules Verne chose to “adventure space”, “From the Earth to the Moon” of 1865, suggesting that mankind could travel out of space and through space to the moon, by shooting a super-sized gun’s bullet straight through space, despite the fact that “The Hollow Earth” beared a lot of potential for adventures. This came about as he wasn’t at all content with changing science fiction’s history with only, that one novel.

Jules Verne attempted to calculate the speed of the bullet, to fly, and from where, of the vessel, on route to the moon, and where it needed to be launched from, and specific scientific details that was required to make this possible.

The eventual Apollo 11’s space launch, in comparison to Jules Vernes’s calculations of how to launch a spaceship into space, shows that, his, was in majority, accurate. Factually, demonstrating that Jules Verne wasn’t just an adventurer writer, but an actual true science fiction writer, in contrast, to his other fellow science fiction writers, who just threw numbers and jargon into the works on the page. This is proven in “From the Earth to the moon” although, this one, wasn’t one of his beloved creations.

The Nautilus, in the “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, an original classic, sees the character, captain Nemo, piloting a submersible, although existing in its primitivity, was much, a very advanced piece of high-tech creation. Nemo’s sub led to the establishment of future precedents, that most sci-fi drew then from, that by using scientific possibilities, from an existing tech, can turn it into an even more advanced piece of tech.

“Steampunk,” resembles a modern version of Jules Verne’s as both imagined the technology, of the 19th century that existed at the time, creating imaginations, of how those techs, can be used, to go on extraordinary and out of this world adventures.

Verne lived in that era, the 19th century era, where he was able to take in everything, of what he could possibly see around him, and with the application of some maths, he was able to create, something so extraordinary to this date, unlike anything, we have seen before. This gives a sense of nostalgia, to Steampunk writers, who returns to it, time and time again.

The reason why Escapism dominates the popular culture

George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series; latest novel, an epic fantasy series; A Song of Ice and Fire. Its popularity trend is due HBO’s majorly acclaimed “Games of Throne” in both, its book form and as in its, all-time tv series. “A song of Ice and Fire” is now floating around in every readers hand, on the trains, coffee shops, in the parks, in every home, buses, taking its space into every bag,and household.  Its popularism stems from its first series of the Games of Thrones. People from around walks of life is reading and talking about this series, from parents, teens, to business executives, nerds, grandparents and the book worms alike.

The popular culture, for a very good while, now, we find, is that fantasy, particularly epic fantasy is the dominant trend among readers and viewers. Sadly, this leaves us with a new victim, dear old science fiction, losing its battle against the epic fantasy, of magic, enchantments, the clinging of swords, raging battles, warriors and castles., Its old cousin, science fiction, is visibly retreating into the background. The world’s excitement is “shouting out loud” the big winner of the war between the two, is epic fantasy.

Novels and popular genre films and trilogy like Harry Potter film, an empire making millions over millions of monies, along with Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film series returning to life, the book trilogy which is now known and beloved the world over.  Of the past ten years, the overwhelming evidence is as clear as day, that we see popular genre films are the epic fantasy.

The final film, The Return of the King also won an Oscar for Best Picture in 2003, the first genre film to do so.  (Many science fiction or fantasy films have been nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, but The Return of the King is the only film that ever won.

We see our televisions is overrun with our out all-time king of favourites “The Games of Thrones. This means Merlin, Arthur, knights and Excalibur will not, be heading anywhere for the time being, nor at any time soon. Academy awards have been given to many science fiction and fantasy films, but none had ever won an Oscar for best picture like” The return of the King” has.

Brandon Sanderson both as the heir to the Jordan empire and a writer of fantasies in his own rite, has secured his place very firmly through both. His highly acclaimed “The Way of Kings novel”, the first in The Storm light Archive series saw to that.

With the “Wheels of Time” popularity, more than ever before, due to the pervasively fantasy among the readers of science fiction, makes epic adventure proportionally favoured for epic fantasy. Makes “The Wheel of Time series” now,so much more popular than ever.

Looking at the Hugo awards, of the past ten years, we have been seeing, wins from Neil Gaiman, JK Rowling, and Susanna Clark. However, none of the wins had spaceship featured anywhere in them except for Robert Charles Wilson and Verner Vinge.

The Best of the Decade Reader’s Poll saw Fantasy in dominance, over Science Fiction with only three titles out of top ten titles showing “Anathem” truly falling into the science fiction category. The two other titles were; Old Man’s War, Blindsight and the rest were fantasy.

However, in the case of the Nebula Awards, shows a larger presence of actual science fiction, seen in the past ten years, despite still seeing a significant decline of actual space travel or futurism in it

Escapism is the reason, why we are seeing, fantasy, enjoying its reign on the throne while science fiction still desperately attempts to regain the controls.  We see that our science fiction is extremely and deeply grounded in political or social relevance, from the past ten years. Paolo Bacigalupi’s, “The Windup Girl” is an excellent example which is very well celebrated, as a very harsh appraisal of the functionality of the world economy in relation to agriculture and pharmaceuticals. It is not fiction that deals with exploring human conditions through time travel, nor space travel, or some other fictional conceits.   It rather deals with windup, (slaves) who are humanoid creatures or “New people”. It is a rather depressing novel, although its contemporary reading is fantastic doesn’t give that good feeling after read.  Nevertheless, It is what’s makes it, a formidable piece of science fiction literature.

This book isn’t out, to make any friends.  It’s too close for comfort for anyone to enjoy it. The social issues, and kinds of concepts, are seen similarly seen today’s daily news similarly to Bacigalupi writing.

Shteyngart Super Sad True Love Story was not widely accepted, in the science fiction genre, which was meticulously detailed and with care, of a near future   In dystopia we saw the primary concerns with the ways our economy would function in a science fictional way depicting our existing mobile device tech at risk of enveloping our lives and eventually change notions of our identity.

Dark, social and political themes is seen in television’s science fiction films.  Examples like Battlestar Galactica, appealed to its audience, widely, because it has a mythical fantasy narrative. Caprica, Its spinoff, felt like real like our society but with a slight difference was more depressing.  It is a brave one, to have the tendency for science fiction to be dark and gritty. but It is not doing it any favours, in gaining a wider audience in comparison to fantasy.

Let us look take at Doctor Who’s success.  It is upbeat, with goofy crazy aliens, of far off-times and places with adventure, a plenty.   Doctor Whose encounters isn’t all close to home, its meditations are not as dark, as for example, “The Windup Girl” or “Caprica”.  When he took on a writer, to write a “Guess episode”, the Neil Gaiman, a fantasy writer, and not John Scalzi. Dr Who is escapism at its top, despite all of its science fictional trappings, and when it does go dark and serious, it does so, within the boundaries of escapism.

This is what the genre of fantasy actually does.  Certainly, in everything we see social and political allegories from Martin to Tolkien.  To make those parallels, you have to do the work in your own head.  Contemporary and serious science fiction isn’t able to that.

Visual Analysis

This concept art is of the dragon and some soldiers from the Fantasy video game Dragon’s Dogma. In the background of this artwork is of an erupting volcano, along with the rest of the area being purely rock formations with streams of lava passing through. The artist may have chosen this type of background because they wanted an environment that seems suitable for a battle between soldiers and a fire breathing dragon. The soldiers standing on the cliff to the right of the artwork, all have their weapons drawn aimed at the dragon to show that they want to fight the dragon despite being near an active volcano and the dragon much larger than them. To the left of the artwork, the dragon is standing on its hind legs with its front feet and wings held outwards and roaring to show dominance over the soldier in the artwork. The dragon’s chest seems to be glowing in the middle, which could indicate that’s where its weakness is. The artist made the dragon only look twice the size of the soldiers instead of hundred times to show that the dragon is further away from the front of the artwork than the soldiers. For the colour scheme of the artwork, the artist used dark reddish for the rock formations, bright orange for the lava, dark red for the dragon and some dark greys for the soldiers.

Synthesis

For my final piece I may use some dark and reddish colours for Fantasy models and some lighter colours for my science-fiction models, so its easy to tell which model belongs to fantasy and which model belongs to science-fiction.

Artist Analysis

3D model Sci-fi Mammoth made by Sergey Tyapkin, Lead 3D Artist at 5518 Studios

This is a 3D model of a Sci-fi Mammoth that was inspired by the video game Horizen Zero Dawn. Sergey put a black background behind the robot mammoth, so all attention to the images goes to the robot mammoth.   For the robot mammoth’s colour scheme, Sergey used blues, white, black, orange and some silver for the robot mammoth’s tusks. The blues were mainly used body, head and trunk. The white was mainly used for the  upper legs, feet, forehead  and side of the belly. The black was used mainly for the lower legs and the base of the trunk.  Sergey used orange and white for a lot of the small details of the robot mammoth.

Synthesis

For my final piece I may use one or two colour to make small detail in the texture of my models. I may also allocate certain colours to certain area of my models just like sergey did with his robot mammoth.

Audience Analysis

After looking at my options for a target audience for my theme and researching into these options, I decided audiences age range wouldn’t be small because Fantasy and Science-fiction often appeals to all age groups, depending on the content being presented. The audience for my short animation is rather broad, as Fantasy vs Sci-fi could be represented in all kinds of ways. Based on the popularity of certain books, films and videos games, I can assume my primary audience will male and female ages 16 and above. These people will most likely understand what I’m trying to portray in my short animation, but my animation won’t be restricted to this audience. Depending on how I go about representing Fantasy vs Science-fiction, my short animation could pique the interest of some journalists, so they could write a short article about what I’m trying to portray in my short animation. The short animation won’t have any complicated choreography, so it will be easy to understand message of the short animation.

Going into this project I will assume that everyone in my audience will have some knowledge on what Fantasy and Science-fiction is, as these genres are very popular. This means my audience will have no trouble understanding what i’m trying to portray as they have prior knowledge of the subject.

Research log

Date accessed	Title, Author, Date	Format	Location	Specific citation	Commentary
10/05/2019	Science Fiction & Fantasy: A Genre With Many Faces, Amy Goldschlager, 1997	Website	https://www.sfsite.com/columns/amy26.htm	‘’science fiction, given its grounding in science, is possible; fantasy, which has no grounding in reality, is not’’	Some sub-genres have elements from both Fantasy and Science-fiction.
11/05/2019	Myth, Fairy Tales, & Children: A Brief History of Fantasy, Katie Behrens, May 17, 2015	Website	https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/myth-fairy-tales-children-a-brief-history-of-fantasy	‘’Tales of the creation of the world, powerful gods and goddesses, heroes battling monsters’’	Fantasy first began with traditional myths.
12/05/2019	History of Science Fiction, Anthony Gramuglia, 2017	Website	https://futurism.media/history-of-science-fiction-part-i	‘’sci-fi asks where we are as a species, where we will go, and what will happen when we get there’’	Some depict science as means for adventure and new experiences, others the negative implications of scientific advancement
13/05/2019	The Sci-Fi Slump: Why Fantasy’s Escapism is Dominating Popular Culture, Ryan Britt, Jul 26, 2011	Website	https://www.tor.com/2011/07/26/the-sci-fi-slump-why-fantasys-escapism-is-dominating-popular-culture/	‘’The pervasiveness of fantasy among readers of genre fiction is also proportionally in favour of epic fantasy’’	Fantasy has better escapism than Science-fiction

Initial Ideas

A Sci-fi Skyscraper

A Fantasy Temple

A Fantasy house

A Sci-fi turret

A Sci-fi Reverse joint Bipedal Mech

A Sci-fi sphere body bipedal robot with side cannons

A Sci-fi humanoid robot

A Sci-fi Biped Mech with missile launchers

A Sci-fi reverse joint bipedal Mech with arm cannons

A Sci-fi Biped robot with moving face plate

A Sci-fi Exo-skeleton

A Fantasy helmet with antlers

A Fantasy helmet with spiral horns

A Fantasy multi plated chest piece

A Fantasy double plated chest piece

 

A Fantasy style Axe

A Sci-fi Military base

A club-like fantasy sword

A crescent moon fantasy magic staff

A Fantasy style sword

A Fantasy magic staff

Developed Ideas

This is a developed drawing of the blade of a fantasy sword. I couldn’t draw the weapon with its handle because i ran out of space on the page. I chose this design because it stands out more than the other fantasy weapon design and a 3D model sword is easier to texture than the other fantasy weapons.

This is handle of the fantasy sword above. I had to draw it on a separate page because i didn’t have enough space to draw the sword with the handle.

This is a developed drawing of the reverse joint bipedal mech. I chose to develop this design because it fairly easy to make into a 3D model and rig, the texturing may be a bit difficult though.

Action Plan

Project Action Plan and Timetable
Week	Date Week Beginning	Activity / What you are intending to do – including independent study	Resources / What you will need to do it – including access to workshops	Done by
1	1st April	I will  be researching my theme and starting my pitch preparation	I will need access to  computer and other sources of media to find information about my theme	22nd April
2	25th April	I will be continuing and finishing the preparation for my pitch and presenting my pitch	I will need access to  computer and other sources of media to find information about my theme	25th April
3	25th April	Making project proposal, influenced by feedback on Pitch, Primary research and Secondary research linking to chosen theme	I will need access to a computer and get feedback from peers and tutor I will need some for of transport	2nd May
4	2nd May	Drawing Initial Ideas Developing Initial Ideas	I will need a A4 Sketch book to draw in and choose Initial ideas I want to develop	9th May
5	9th May	Developing my Final Piece	I will need access to a computer, 3DS Max and Photoshop	16th May
6	16th May	Get Feedback for Final Piece and edit final piece based on feedback and  Evaluate Final piece	I will need access to computer to edit my final piece and feedback from peers and tutor and to write up my evaluation	20rd May
7	20rd May	Go through entire project to find and fix any mistake and add extra content to certain sections of the project	will need access to computer to edit my final piece and feedback from peers and tutor	21st May

 

Final Piece Development

In this image I made the Blade of my Fantasy sword. To do this I started with a single plane shape, then I put the edit poly modifier on the plane and then I constantly extruded one edge of the plane to create half of the outer edge of the blade. Then I mirror copied the half outer to make the other half of the outer edge of the blade. Then I used the attach tool to make both halves register as one object. Then I used the Cap tool to fill in the empty space in the middle with a single plane. Then I selected the middle plane and moved it outward to make the blade into a 3D half blade, so then I mirror copied the blade again to make the other half of the blade. Then I used the attach tool to make both halves register as one object.

In this image I made the handle of my Fantasy sword. To do this I started with a single plane shape, then I put the edit poly modifier on the plane and then I constantly extruded one edge of the plane to create half of the handle, Then I mirror copied the half handle to make the other half of the handle. Then I used the attach tool to make both halves register as one object. Then I used the Cap tool to fill in the empty space at the hilt of the handle with a single plane. Then I selected the plane at the hilt and moved it outwards to make the half handle 3D. Then I moved some of the lines on the grip of half handle outward to make the half handle more 3D. Then I mirror copied the handle again to make the other half of the handle. Then I used the attach tool to make both halves register as one object. Then I used the attach tool to make the Blade and handle register as one object.

This went well because I was able to make both the blade and the handle without any issues.

To make the body of my sci-fi robot, I used four different spheres. Then I positioned the sphere based the individual parts of the sci-fi robots orthographic drawing, then I used the 4x4x4 modifier on the spheres to make them the same shape as the different parts of the sci-fi robot’s body. Then i used the attach tool to make all the spheres register as one object.

To make the leg of my sci-fi robot, I used six different spheres. Then I positioned the spheres based the individual parts of the sci-fi robots orthographic drawing, then I used the 4x4x4 modifier on the spheres to make them the same shape as the different parts of the sci-fi robot’s leg. Then i used the attach tool to make all the spheres register as one object.

In this image of the sci-fi robot, I mirror copied the first leg I made, then I postioned the legs and the sci-fi robots body in a way to make the sci-fi robot look broken.

This went well because I was able to make both the blade and the handle without any issues.

In this image, I textured both the Fantasy sword and Sci-fi robot with the Ink’n Paint texture because i didn’t have enough time to make a custom texture.

Final Piece

My Final piece was initially supposed to be an animation representing the fact that the Fantasy genre is more popular than the Sci-fi.

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These are my final renders of my models

I think my models came out the way I wanted them to because I was able to make the models look the same as their orthographic drawings, but I wasn’t able to make custom textures and animate the models.

Research Evaluation

In my research for my FMP, I used both primary and secondary research.

For my Primary research, I made short survey. This research gave me a better understanding on what people think about Fantasy and Science-fiction. I don’t think this research influenced my work much because I didn’t get a lot of responses to my survey.

For my Visual Analysis, I looked at concept art of a dragon and some soldiers from the video game Dragon’s Dogma because this game uses a popular representation of the Fantasy genre, which is involving mythical creatures and magic in medieval time periods, also known as the dark ages. This research helped me with my Fantasy sword model because I made my Fantasy sword look unrealistic just like a real fantasy world would be. For my Artist Analysis, I looked at Sergey Tyapkin’ 3D Sci-fi Mammoth because its shows the type of technology that is often depicted in Sci-fi Films and video games. This research didn’t help with my Sci-fi robot model because the robot I made looks nothing like the 3D model Sergey made.

For my contextual, I looked at different sub-genres within Fantasy and science-fiction because it gave me a better understanding what criteria certain stories need to meet to be considered Fantasy, Sci-fi or both. I also looked into the history of Fantasy, which gave me a better understanding of how the Fantasy genre started. I also looked into the history of Science-fiction, which gave me a better understanding of how the Science-fiction genre started. The last thing I looked into was why Fantasy is more popular than Science-fiction, which gave a better understanding of what current Fantasy stories do better than Science-fiction stories. This research helped with my final piece because it influenced how I made the models interact in the final renders.

In conclusion, I think my research went well because most of my research was able to influence final piece, but I don’t think I spent my time well because I had to use the emergency week to finish my models and Evaluations.

Design Evaluation

For my Final design of my FMP, I chose to make 3D models in 3DS Max because I feel that making 3D models is what I’m good at out of all the forms of media I could have chosen to make my final design. I think the quality of my final piece came out better than last year’s FMP, considering the fact that I wasn’t able to animate the models in the way I wanted to. Texturing the models didn’t go so well because I didn’t have enough time to create custom textures for the models. In future I will improve my ability to complete written work faster, so I can have more time to make textures and animate the models.

Weekly Evaluation

Week 1

I started looking at different themes such as science versus religion and fantasy versus science fiction. Making mind maps for each theme that I chose.

I think my first week went well because I was able to decide what theme I wanted for my FMP.

Week 2

In the second I started looking into different sub genres and found that some of the sub-genres mixed both science fiction and fantasy together. I also looked into the history of science fiction and fantasy and looked into the popularity between the genres. I found that fantasy is more popular than science fiction.

The second week went well because I was able to find all the relevant information I need.

Week 3

In the third week of my FMP, I started to look at what audience my Final piece would be suitable for, in which I chose a 16+ audience, but I will only give a general explanation in my Pitch

My third week went well because I was able to decide what primary  and secondary audience I wanted and finish my audience analysis.

Week 4

In fourth week of my FMP, I made my survey and distributed to a few people I know for my primary research.

I think my fourth week didn’t go well because I didn’t get a lot of responses for my survey

Week 5

In the week fifth of my FMP, I worked on my initial ideas and developed ideas based on the primary and secondary research I had during that week.

I think my fifth week went well because I was able to draw a variety of initial ideas. I could have done better in this week if I didn’t have the habit of trying to make certain drawings perfect.

Week 6

In the sixth week of my FMP, all the preparations, were completed for my pitch, following with the presentation of my pitch to all my peer. Although it was delayed, I presented the pitch using cue cards.  After I presented my pitch to my peers, and then looked at the results of my peers’ opinions on the feedback sheets, collected from them. I considered their various opinions and found out where and what I did well in, and improvements I need to make with areas I need to work on. I made my project proposal based on the theme of fantasy versus science fiction. I also based my project proposal on the feedback I got for my pitch presentation.

I think my sixth week went well because I was able to prepare and deliver my pitch to my peers and get feedback from them. From the feedback I got from my peers I learned that I should have had more research for my pitch.

Week 7

In the week seventh of my FMP, I started working on my final piece for my FMP, my final piece was a 3D model on 3DS Max, so I had a lot to do to make my final piece. I had to make two different models, so I would have made a lot of adjustments to both models throughout the modelling process and have them both textured before deadline.

I don’t think seventh week went well because making my models was taking longer than I had expected and I didn’t finish my models by the end of the week. I could have done better if I had started making my models one or two weeks earlier.

Week 8

In the week eighth of my FMP, I couldn’t have my peers evaluate my final piece because I was taking too long make the models. By the end of week eight I was able to texture my models and finish my final piece, but without any peer evaluations.

I don’t think my eighth week went well because I couldn’t get the peer reviews I wanted for my final piece. I could have custom textures if I had started working on my models one or two weeks earlier, so I would have time to get peer reviews for my models.

Week 9

In week ninth of my FMP, I spellchecked all my work, structured my blog, so it would be easy to read, and I uploaded my final piece and evaluated it.

I think my ninth week went well because I was able to spellcheck all my work, structure my work and upload my final and evaluate it. I could have done better if used the time I had during the week add extra information to my research and draw more initial and developed ideas before deadline.

FMP Criteria exploration

Context	The parts of a written or spoken statement that follow a specific word or passage to influence the meaning of the statement
Appropriate	Applicable
Judgment	The ability to make considered decisions
Articulate	The ability to speak fluently and coherently
Ambitions	A strong desire to achieve something
Clarify	Make a statement or situation less confusing and more comprehensible
Purpose	The reason something is done, created or exists
Comprehensive	Including all or nearly all elements of something
Concept	An Abstract idea
Evidence	the available body of facts or information that support whether a belief or proposition is true or valid
Sufficient	Enough
Relevant	Closely connected to what is being done
Development	The process of developing something
Sustained	Something being done for an extended period of time without interruption
Investigation	The action of examination or research on something
Interpretation	The action of explaining the meaning of something
Synthesis	The combination of components to form a connected whole
Insightful	Showing an accurate and deep understanding of something
Exploration	The action of exploring a unknown area
Alternative	Another choice
Resolve	Find a solution
Theoretical	Area of study rather than its practical application.
Decisive	Settling an issue
Initiative	The ability to assess and initiate things independently
Adapt	Make suitable for a new use or purpose
Effective	Successful in producing a desired or intended result.
Demonstration	An act of showing that something exists
Autonomously	Freedom to act independently
Implement	Put into effect
Evaluation	The making of a judgment about the amount, number, or value of something
Satisfactory	Fulfilling expectations
Coherent	Logical and consistent
Reasoned	Based on logic
Commitment	Quality of being dedicated to a cause
Realistic	Showing a sensible and practical idea of what can be achieved or expected
Negotiation	Discussion aimed at reaching an agreement
Continuous	Ongoing
Limited	Restricted in size, amount, or extent
Adequate	Acceptable in quality
Application	The action of putting something into operation
Enquiry	An act of asking for information
Aesthetic	The appreciation of beauty
Awareness	Perception of a situation
Imaginative	Showing creativity
Flexible	Able to be easily modified to respond to altered circumstances
Extensive	Covering or affecting a large area
Analysis	Detailed examination of the elements or structure of something
Communication	The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium
Justification	The action of showing something to be right or reasonable
Valid	Officially acceptable
Perceptive	Having or showing sensitive insight
Accomplished	Highly trained or skilled in a particular activity
Sophistication	The quality of being sophisticated
Presentation	A speech or talk in which a new product, idea, or piece of work is shown and explained to an audience
Clarity	The quality of being clear
Organization	The action of organizing something

References

Amy Goldschlager. (1997). Science Fiction & Fantasy: A Genre With Many Faces. Available: https://www.sfsite.com/columns/amy26.htm. Last accessed 10th May 2019.

Anthony Gramuglia. (2017). History of Science Fiction. Available: https://futurism.media/history-of-science-fiction-part-i. Last accessed 12th May 2019.

Katie Behrens. (2015). Myth, Fairy Tales, & Children: A Brief History of Fantasy. Available: https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/myth-fairy-tales-children-a-brief-history-of-fantasy. Last accessed 11th May 2019.

Ryan Britt. (2011). The Sci-Fi Slump: Why Fantasy’s Escapism is Dominating Popular Culture. Available: https://www.tor.com/2011/07/26/the-sci-fi-slump-why-fantasys-escapism-is-dominating-popular-culture/. Last accessed 13th May 2019.