Diorama definition:
A diorama is a model that represents a scene with 3-Dimensional qualities to them. They can be a room, a closed off environment, a leveled environment etc. They can be used in a lot of media like:
- Claymation animation environments/scenes.
- Building and lanscaping models.
- 3D diorama level designs.
- Film sets.
- 3D animation scenes.
- Interior design art and models.
- Concept art
- Asset creation.
Mind map:
The next stage was the mind map, this consists of what a mind map can be, what it can be used for in 3D, 2D and level design. With 3D modelling it can be used to blockout and create closed off scenes and environments like rooms and closed off forests for a finished product. 2D artists can use models as a perspective guide to paint over when they are doing their art.
For art it can be used for designing smaller areas before building up the area. It can be used for breaking down a larger scene and understanding the assets and set pieces.
For level design it can be used as the environment the level takes place in, dioramas can create simple and linear level design that can enclose the level and mechanic design into a world that works around it.
Types of dioramas and mood boards:
Frank Wong dioramas:
Frank wong dioramas were originally created in the 1940s and captured 1940s China town. They often consisted of rooms in his home such as the kitchen and lounge. He also did places he visited like the herb shop and shoe shining stand. Frank went into large amounts of detail with his dioramas, showing food, folded towels, as well as this different fabrics would be used to give accurate detailing in the scene. Many people over time have continued to create buildings and room dioramas in Frank Wong’s style of work. I love dioramas like this as they are very cosy and have a lot of detail and care in them. Modern dioramas in games, animation, art and museums have been influenced greatly by Frank Wong’s work. To me this is a great start to go to when looking at diorama design, specifically room dioramas.
Full sized dioramas:
These kinds of dioramas can be found in many modern museums and themeparks, these dioramas are used to show natural history, eco systems, fictional environments etc. Museums carefully scale the models and scenes to fully immerse visitors in the scene. Disney are well known for their scenes on rides and around the park and often incorporate forced perspective to make the objects look bigger than they already are. characters, buildings, plants and other set pieces. Museum dioramas often show still events so they have to capture character movement in still sculptures. I really like how immersive these dioramas are, I can tell the scale is the reason it is so immersive and it is really interesting to think of how scale can be used dioramas.
Miniature dioramas:
Miniature diorama scenes can be found in theme parks, claymation studio sets and museums. Miniature models of people are sometimes put in real life places like on cliffs and in ponds to make it seem like a much larger place. Claymation studios create whole diorama sets where scenes take place, while you may think they are rather big the scenes are quite small and are packed with detail. I love how much detail they are able to pack into these small scenes and the overall structure of them, it could really help me with my actual diorama project when scaling.
What are dioramas used for in games development?:
Visual development:
Diorama concept art is used to design an area or small elements of a scene, when doing an open world game you couldn’t just design the whole scene in one go. Designing smaller scenes that come together makes the process much easier. As well as this diorama art is used to design buildings, linear level design and rooms. As well as this the diorama art can be used in game as the actual diorama used (If using 2D graphics) or can be used as an icon for the location. However the biggest use for diorama art is visual planning, concept art and ideas generation.
Level design:
Diorama based level design can be found in many games. This example of diorama level art that was based on a game was done by a fan on tumblr and shows a diorama that could function as a level. It is an enclosed space that has a linear design level wise. A lot of mobile and puzzle games follow this design choice due to the simplicity of it. Dioramas can include levels and have a floor design where you can unlock floors as you progress further or can have linear pathways that the player can navigate the level through
Refined 3D assets and locations:
Dioramas themselves can be found as finished 3D rendered scenes in games as rooms, island levels and large assets such as buildings. Any enclosed environment counts as a diorama. Like I said before concept art is the design of the diorama, it would start off with something like this.
And the 3D modellers turn the concept art into a complete refined Diorama like the example shown below (Game credit: Nintendo’s Super Mario Odysseey” 2017)
Dioramas can be rooms, enclosed environments, hub worlds and final level assets in a 3D setting. There is a lot I can do with a diorama! A skill used by some artists to get the perspective of a diorama right is to block out the diorama in a 3D engine and paint over it, 3D can also be used as a tool for 2D artists.
Roxanne's Development Blog (Second year) 