Hair Art in Games: Aesthetics Difference between Eastern and Western

[Music] hello everyone nice to see you here we are very honored to give this talk at the gdc our topic is hair art in games aesthetics difference between eastern and western thanks for coming our speech so first let me introduce the speakers i am nora xiaoinfu is currently the lead character artist injustice mobile project and the character specialist injustice online project at netease thunderfire studio i used to work at digital extremes as a character artist in wolfram project and at ea mobile canada as a 3d artist hi i'm hao and i'm now currently a senior user researcher at netease thunderfire ux department

recent projects i have worked on includes justice online morrow dual uno mobile and naraka playpoint um i nora will give the first half of the speech and the role will give the next half thanks for coming so let's start yeah okay let's start our speech so as a media art loved by people all over the world games show different art styles when we make next generation games we often pay attention to the effects of characters and hair is a very important part of it what's interesting is there are many aesthetic similarities and differences between western and eastern sims games based on cultural background i'm fortunate to have worked in different game companies in canada and china

and have participated in games of different art styles in different game fields from east to west here i have collected some experience sorry i have collected some working experience and find some interesting points to share with you with my partner there are many points and this talk will focus on the aspect of the hair so first let's review the chance of hair design in video game in recent decades with the development of the technology especially the hardware improvement the game performance have been rapidly developed therefore artists are all allowed to present their design more freely so hair has been shown very differently at different historical stages

of the game development becoming more refined and diverse we can see this changing trend from the tumble ride in 1990s to the metal gear solid in 2000s until the recent last of us in the games of 1990s since the hardware can only support very few triangles the hairstyles are also very simple without the texture of hair with the improvement of hardware in the 2000s the games have been able to support a small number of haircuts with transparent hair textures and now the hardware have been able to supported very high triangles and large number of alpha tests and alpha blend transparent maps so artists also better able to design

and create more complex hair styles the same changes have been experienced in the eastern game industry from audition online to nullical blade chop point and justice online mobile in development stage the hair design is becoming more and more complex and the details both on the texture and its dynamic performance are increased rapidly so games have accompanied many players since their childhood we can see that in most games the hair designs are mostly derived from hairstyles used in people's daily life extracting the elements from reality and using it for characters whether in the early games like resident

evil or the games released in recent years such as cyberpunk 2077 the hairstyles of the characters are very in very common in real life which makes the players feel that these characters are the people living around them looks familiar in appearance and creates a sense of immersion at the same time the design of character in games is not only extracting elements from real life but some special designs are also affecting the public aesthetics in 2000 when audition online was the most popular game in chinese market many stars have the similar haircuts with audition on lifestyle

similar hairstyles can often have been seen in street becoming a very fashionable style of the era today's gamers have more requirements for game quality they not only want to customizing the face and the body in the game but also matching the different hairstyles with their temperament therefore hair style art is very important to highlight the personality of the character take net is nalika blade point as an example in this game players can not not only customize the character's face but also can choose different hair colors and their styles to increase the sense of immersion and some games such as net is tmu mobile go a step further to providing more diversity

such as custom suboriginal dyeing function for hair color many players are willing to spend much time on it in terms of hair styling design and the production there are many interesting similarities and the differences between eastern theme and western scene games next i will use several games produced by our netease as representative of the eastern game scene to compare with the game cases from sorry from western scene let's look at the similarity first in terms of art design hair style design is implementable in game whether eastern or western the designs are all extracting from the elements of actual hairstyles in life

then we are creating like blades and short hair in the ancient chinese themed games justice online which background is in song dynasty a thousand years ago there are also some design elements extracting from daily life such as the blades and the curly hair the examples go on and on from above we can easily feel that whether it's eastern or western the design of hair style are not rhythm or baseless but created with elements in real in real life moreover the biggest similarity in game industry is the application of technology no matter which project the main way to

make in-game hair is hair card method with the improvement of the hardware some game developers also use dynamic hair simulation to present better dynamic effects the haircuts method is the mostly widely used practice in the game industry the vast majority of in-game hair styles use this technique to create hair hair cards can make very rich on the complex shapes at the same time especially combined with the closed simulation or dynamic board it makes the movement of the hair more natural and smoother so let's take a look at this video for our justice mobile project for first to see how it works [Music]

[Music] in this real-time rendering video the casper and the girl's hair are made with haircuts method in combination with unity close stimulation which achieves a natural motion effect their hair went hair touching the body and the calculation amount is also very slow making it easily running on the mobile phone another method is dynamic hair simulation best known as amd chase fax an unreal engine has rendering and

simulation system use a bundle based workflow to rendering each hair with physical accurate motion it enables the creation of hairstyles to be simulated in real time rendering hundreds of thousands or more of the realistic hair in this video the hair is used amd transpex technology although the technology is the same when making different hair styles in different sim games between west and east the focus on hair design aesthetics and the gameplay in the game are different so what is the aesthetic difference between eastern and western hair styles before showing the case please allow me

to extend some eastern and western differences in traditional painting i believe that everyone who have visited the western classical painting and asian chinese painting in a museum will find that there are great difference between them too it's two completely different systems relatively speaking western classical painting focus on lighting and shadow perspective and anatomical structure which tend to present the reality in painting whether figures or landscapes western classical painting express the material world and the reality so to speak western aesthetics mainly focus on creating recreating and attached and attached great importance to realism in contrast

the eastern ancient painting are not more about describing the real world but a kind of expression of personal feelings take ancient chinese painting as an example this is a part of china's national treasure a thousand miles of rivers and mountains from northern song dynasty more than a thousand years ago when we feel the beauty of the we can feel the beauty of the landscape from painting but the landscape are completely inconsistent with light and shadow perspective and structure this is the most important point of chinese painting feeling expression realism is neither needed nor value in chinese traditional painting in fact you can't find such a mountain like that at all and this blue color on the top of mountain is also impossible in natural

reality but we can still feel the same feeling as when the ocean painting that is beauty due to this difference in eastern and western aesthetics the difference between reproducing reality and expression emotions the difference in hair design aesthetics is caused and it is also the difference in players acceptance of hair aesthetics between eastern and western themed games therefore western themed games focus on realism restore the shape in real life and pay more attention to the sense of reality such as the main character's hair style changing during the fighting process taking last of us two as an example the shape of the hair is consistent with reality

the hair roots are distinct the material is very realistic the surrounding broken hair is clearly shown and some shorter hair are struggled after the battle which is very realistic and physically truth when seeing this players will price the sense of reality on the other hand many oriental themed games consider the styling and production of hair form a hair from another direction and will pay more attention to the silhouette outline and the beauty of the styling while sacrificing part of the realism and the regionality take three chinese games take three chinese style games produced by our netease thunderfire studio for example they are justice online narika played

the point so when we whether it is a realistic an art style or two-dimensional other style game the hair design tended to pay more attention to the beauty of the silhouette shape and line sacrificing part of the realistic feel injustice online on the left her hair style is using lines to form a silhouette but if it's in real life shouldn't it shouldn't it be hand down under the influence of gravity narika played in the middle as another example so many decorations look so heavy isn't she afraid that her precious golden accessories will falling off during a fight how can the hair accessories be inserted from the button up against the gravity

and wong tran from value on the left right in order to create the silhouette the hair is floating in the air which is completely against the physics these designs are completely non-realistic but who can deny they are beautiful in fact these hairstyles are widely priced in players group through the feedback from virus social media and the questionnaires we drawn conclusion of our games player players don't care much about whether the hairstyle is realistic and unreasonable they care more about whether the appearance are beautiful or not therefore in those projects artists make a choice giving up part over the reality of haircuts when we did designing and producing hair

which is different from the realistic style in western game after brief up after briefly talking about the similarities and the differences mentioned above let me introduce how we design oriental hairstyles as mentioned earlier both both east both eastern and western games have one thing in common in terms of aesthetics that is many hair style elements are based on the extraction of hair style elements in life but in oriental scene the games many hair styles can hardly be founded in real life many ships cannot be restored in real life because of the anti-gravity so how do we find elements this goes back to chinese painting we picked specific elements from historical painting and recreate to our

works the traditional chinese ink painting is formed by one stroke due to the characteristic of the brush there will be different thickness changes in one stroke the line drawn with the tip of the brush is thinner and the line drawn with the brush obliquely is thicker at the same angle the glass ratio of the force different the lines are completely different the rhythm of ink painting is also drawn within a single stroke therefore the line is the most important aesthetic elements of chinese painting art and it is also a watershed between chinese and the western painting changes in the sickness shade lightness speed dryness and wetness of a lion under the stroke can express emotion ups and down convey feelings

show character and publicizing in individuality with the concept of lines when we design and make hair style we will consider each strand hair is aligned and pay more attention whether the line over the hair are smooth and the weather each strand of hair has a reasonable thickness change and the weather there is enough tension in the outline of the styling that the hair straights out take a look at this here as an example here is a haircut created in the collaboration between narika blade point and justice online each strand hair in this hairstyle has ups and downs through the change of the thickness and the shade of the silhouette the characters great great personality is clearly shown

woman's hair styles are different from men's although they are using the curly lines as well and have sickness changes in women's hair styles we will pay more attention to whether the curvature of the curve is soft or not and whether the falling strands are distributed in a rhythmical change rather than an even distribution through the changes of the outline and the silhouette of the line as well as the changes of the curling reading a completely different temperament can be reflected curly hair and curly lines not only means soft and feminine but also can show the power and the frame point personality this is the magic that lies bring in therefore when we make hair we concern about the beauty of the line shape the thickness change of hair strands the shade change of the hair pieces

shown on the uv distribution and the change of the curved medium to the outline of the silhouette in addition to extracting design inspiration from the lines of ink painting we also extract elements from traditional painting for example this picture is painted a painting of tang dynasty 1300 years ago we extracting the main hair style elements pen hand and big peony flower combined with our understanding of the curve to design this style although it's kind of against gravity how can the hair pieces on the left not fall down in the real world but it does not affect the beauty of this shape in the game at all from perspective of aesthetics hairstyle is a very important

part of the character appearance of a certain era hair can act as a gateway to bring us back to the old time in a way hairstyle can connect our imagination of the past with real tradition forming bridges across the time and generations and reach thousands of households through films games and other works after talking about some aesthetics discussion we then entered the focus on our speech it's also a summary from our teamwork experience how we can better achieve interesting and beautiful hairstyles in the game and what we can do next we will summarize four key thoughts about hair design in video game as well as our understanding of design method the four key the four key points are history experience

the game hair design in line with the character era will give players a better sense of immersion in this part we will talk about the historical immersion of hairstyles through a serious easter and western artworks and games part 2 diversity personality from perspective of user experience we discuss how to present diversity and personality by haircuts as well as how to bring players a variety of hair styles design when allowing using their creativity part 3 contrast memory although the main point the main purpose of most hairstyles is as attractive appearance some hairstyles could express very strong personality characteristic we will discuss how to create some strong memory points by creating hair

styles contrast part 4 label breaking universal value we will discuss how to break the design concept of laboring character with hair style labels and try to use game art exploration to convey universal value in addition the work we have done to realize the idea of label breaking the third and the fourth part will be introduced by my partner rohan so let's start with the brief review in the history of hair design in many cases it's easily to identity the background of the character's era without looking at the character's clothes just by styling his hair the first one ancient greece hairstyle the middle one is barrack hairstyle

and the last one is qing dynasty china hairstyle hair can symbolize person hair can symbolize personal identity status cultural identity and so on the study of these asian hair styles can go in many directions from history books statues frescos and ancient painting that have been passed down to the present we can get information about how asian people dressed up in the era when they lived in game design we can make full use of hairstyles with historical characteristics of the time to better tell stories the hair style design in the game that is in line with the character's error background will give the players a better sense of immersion

here is a character from tv series king look in our collaboration with our justice online project even if the audience have not tried this game or watched the tv series they can easily located the historical background sure her high hair asian china and her identity a well-educated woman with a higher status and so on the beautiful accessories on her head which is not over decorated shown that she is very rich but with a restrained personality the hair was neatly calmed the back indicates that she has the habits to control her appearance which tell us her social status in fact this woman is a queen in the game and a tv series

who dislike luxury and has reserved an acquired personality an example another example in this case through the hairstyle we see and a sweet young girl in ancient china the accessories on her head are executed exquisite many small flowers and appeals showing her gentle and soft character she is keeping ben's head she is keeping ben's hair in front looking neat and cute in fact this girl is a lovely princess with a tragic love story the right hair style can tell a story it can also allow players to involve in the game at the beginning with a good sense of immersion experience and they will not feel inconsistent and

strange in the game total war 3 kingdom the developer has restored the historical background in a high degree and the reboot's unique hairstyle is impressive the sense of his the sense of historical immersion is not only well represented in represented in oriental themed games but also well reflected in many other cultural scenes as soon as the hairstyle in assassin's creed oranges in display is displayed without any text introduction players know that the background of this game is ancient egypt similarly as soon as this hairstyle comes out even people who have not played the god of war series can know that the story takes place in ancient greece

and the total warm realm here styling is used to express the background of the history to sum up the hairstyle design in the game that is in line with the character's error background will make the players have a better sense of immersion part 2 diversity and personality after finishing the previous part let's talk about the diversity and personality of hairstyles this is imagine this image is from fallout 4. i'm quoting this image here because it fits my point of view we can change hairstyles in our daily life just like characters in games when people change their hairstyles sometimes the temperament is also changed the variety of hair style provide more display or personality and

temperament therefore in the game as in daily life a variety of hair style options to change at any time providing a feeling of freshness as well as a deeper sense of involvement on the other hand the specific outfit of some game characters shows a strong personality people remember those whose impressive them with personalized appearance for example tagami takayuki in lost judgement with a unique hairstyle which impressed people easily this is a strong memory points that that the feature of the haircut brings to the player in another category of games this provides games with a greater variety of different customized

looks it can give players a better experience and increase users sickness in addition to the diversity of hair styles individual customization can also be involved improved through adjustments such as hair color diary diversity and personality are two sides of a cone whether it is personalized design or diversified design the main purpose is to better provide players with memory points a sense of immersion and a better game experience so what's netease games did to provide the players with hair style diversity wireless generating personalized and impress their character the variety of hair style highlights the richness of the game character at the

same time the personalized hair style design shows the specific the special characteristic of players in the game take nalika breakpoint as an example could you feel impressed when you saw this character for the first time if so are you curious what elements make it impressive that comes to personalizing designs to enhance the character's chance treats so what kind of personalized elements are used in the design this hairstyle that combines a very muscular mohawk hair design hairstyle with long curly hair that is feminine the designer combines two completely opposite temperament hair styles

and they design the shape match the male face which have a various job memory very strong memory and personality make one remember this look at glance different hairstyles in the game show different personality these three characters have the same facial facial feature similar clothing style and are decorated with similar bead nettle net necklace on the on her chest on their chest sorry but because of the different hairstyle they show completely different personalities the one in the left feels tough and strong the one in the middle is more gentle and the one in the far right is between them two why do people feel so different

this is because the short sharp line gives people a sharp and strong feeling with a certain aggression while the long curly lines show a certain gentle and mild natural the characteristics of the line are applied to the hairstyles which brings the character attributes unique with the lines to the character it's also a good way to show personality if it is matched with different facial features skin color and clothing the characters shape will have a more distinct personality after these other after this as a way to enhance the uh aesthetics richness of character other than the person personalization of the design of course

we can provide more variety of hair styles in addition to personalized styling in the tnu mobile game players can always find their favorite hairstyles to show their personality but within the same personality temperament hair styles can also be changed in different ways for example the player's hair in the picture is very cute and sweet one in the category of cute and sweet hairstyles there are still varieties haircuts designs so diversity is also provided in personality in the same category of personality and temperament with similar hairline elements different shapes can design to better provide players with rich diversity the same long hair curve shape

through the different design can also provide rich diversity in the category of mild temperament the decorative items on the head are also extremely important part of in-hand styling design developers will design a lot of hair accessories to provide more choice some small accessories can make the player's image in the game much more personalized such as cute fox ear accessories and the design of hairstyle and hair accessories can better increase the beauty below is a brief overview of the variety of hairstyles and accessories injustice online diverse customization of traditional hair styles gives the game more possibility of better richness

of characters and player space so let's take a look of the hairstyle and the decorations i am i am finishing my part of the speech so let my partner know how introduce the next part of the speech to everyone thank you thank you thank you hi i'm hao lo um thanks for listening to our speech and i will be presenting the next two parts so let's dive into the third part which is about contrast and memory so most hairstyles are designed for beauty as the main purpose and the good hairstyle design makes the game character look with basic stylistic

guidelines however some hairstyles themselves have different characteristics such as strong temperament for example a long curly hair is naturally associated with the feminine and gentle temperament when looking at this curly hair it's normal to think okay she's probably a female maybe because maybe because many women choose to keep long hair although they all have their on their own choices but if a character if a male character keeps a big beard along with the long curly hair it will conflict with the stereotype in our mind and it will definitely be impressive because it brings a strong point for audiences to remember and the audiences or players will immediately feel that this is a character who has an interesting background story

let's take a look at this picture what kind of imagination do you have when you see it you probably would think she's a lovely girl with gentle characteristics and she might be a gentle character in a game but that's not always the truth with the same hairstyle he can also be a strong warrior so different face gives a different interpretation of this same hairstyle but which one do you think is more impressive looking at the picture in the middle the long hair matches the feminine feature and looks totally part of it but the hairstyle impression in people's concept conflicts with the character's temperament in the third picture making it extremely impressive to most people

compared with the middle one audiences will more look forward to the subsequent story content brought by the character on the right we have not entered any maps with this character with big beard and long hairstyle his image makes us eager to discover more about his story and know more about his journey along the way let's look at another example a star in china what is your feeling when you look at this picture her temperament is relatively mild tender and soft and this used to be her daily hairstyle and it's beautiful but maybe a lit maybe less memorable the middle one and the right one both changed to short hair

which conflicted with her own soft looks and temperament the visual impact immediately make people memorize so the star in reality actually keeps short hair for the most of the time and we probably want to know more about her story and how she's doing when we see these two pictures and when it in when it comes to games this is a boss from netiz game justice with a bald plus braided hairstyle design which has a strong memory point and fits the evil character aura that a boss should has by the way this hairstyle also can be obtained by player when you defeat the boss so um if in this game the player's customized face is relative is relatively mild and soft

with the evil hair style he will not only no more have evil temperament but becomes a little funny to some players so that players around him feel very impressive and that is how you become a person remembered by everyone inside the guild or a player community some players um will use this hairstyle which cannot be purchased in in the game to communicate and to socialize with other players and there will even be players who um has have this hairstyle and they will customize the color of this hair to get a much more if different effect in this way um he is also naturally remembered by other players and this is exactly the effect of having a huge constructing hair design

and another example is in naraka playpoint of nadis some players will also customize their characters with various hair styles at the same time they will also combine the game's face customization settings to make their characters into unique images why do they do this the answer is that it's it is easier to be remembered by other players of course in the process of hair and face customization players can enjoy the fun of their own creations but ultimately they get more sense of accomplishment because the very recognizable and constructing image stays in people's memory so after talking about contrast and memory i will be moving on to the fourth part

which is about lego label breaking and universal values so in many cases games artists and designers or directors of movies often use hair style to directly define a character and even his or her personality um which has been mostly successful successful because hairstyles leave players and audiences great impression and they just remember the character however sometimes such a design can have a some unwelcome effect effects the reason for that is because using a specific hairstyle to define a character will make the game or film lack of a variety a certain personality or characteristic should match only a certain kind of style if you think so you have defined the person or the character with with just a simple

simple label but this character can also have a lot of other rich and varied hair style designs and through other aspects of character design to highlight the specific characteristic therefore sometimes it needs to be transferred to not using certain hairstyles to to get character labeled easily in game and not defining a certain character or background with just a specific hairstyle because it bans diversity and discriminates and we can see that certain hair steps also have certain impressions in people's minds for example this slicked back here give people the first impression that they are related to gangsters or mafia

this is actually a natural label added to such characters however in fact this kind of hairstyle used by some people reflects just cool characters um and has nothing to do with their occupations the this kind of stereotype should not be labeled on a person or a character so easily and let let's take a look at these pictures what do you imagine when you see them so the these 30 braids give people the first impression that they are related to street art hip-hop or other cultures or cool new trends just like this guy he can be a popular rapper but in fact um some dirty braids or dreadlocks are

connected with mysterious religions in some places among the ethnic minorities in china there is a religious belief of buddhism and the hairstyle of believers are actually very similar to dreadlocks they do not represent street culture hip-hop art but rather a faith and reverence for the buddhism underneath these labels we just saw there actually lies a very different truth so for these two pictures which one is more impressive or which one makes us expect more stories behind it i think the answer might be the left one if we break the stereotype and add some other rich features to the specific characterized characterization for

example the old and devoted believer will be more so storytelling than the features of the hairstyle itself we can use this method of peeling off those labels in game design to give the characters richer and fuller information and it will have a more impressive impact than just designing a defined hairstyle label for a certain character and such character appearance designs as an overturn to the traditional stereotype may give players more memorable and impressive points as well as greater impact to them but how to peel off or break these labels in game design here i would like to share what ladies have done with you firstly we developed and applied a diverse

headwear system we we know that in a specific historical context um game designers are prone to labeling when designing character hairstyles for example the golden hairpin for rich people and the helmet for warriors however if you have a more various and varied hair decoration system the effect of labeling will be largely reduced why because bringing a a lot of different hair accessories for players consequently reduces the stereotype that there are certain characters should have a certain hairstyle or wear a certain hair accessory in this game justice online which is a big title of netiz we designed and implemented a diverse

hardware system as you can see in this video the character has a rich variety of hair decorations and the wide a variety of hair accessories that allow players to have many different combinations even based on the same hairstyle and players can choose for many more other hairstyles to change combinations in this way it's much more difficult to say in terms of hairstyle and hair accessories to give him a specific label because the character is not limited only limited to certain hair style appearance on the other hand it also enhances the richness of the character so that play so that other players have more desire to um explore the story behind the character or to communicate and socialize with the

player behind him so we can change many decorations any and headwear in this video and secondly creative hair shape customization system was designed and implemented also according to the historical background of the game and the characteristics of rose as mentioned before we don't want a game in which the warriors are only bold or with short hair the hairstyles can also be can all be customized by players freely

this kind of experimental function also allows players to be more inclusive about characters appearance rather than limiting their perceptions to a certain character should only have a certain hairstyle and some more examples can be found in naraka play point of net ease so long hair of this regional culture the the ancient chinese updo and the adjusted western style of mohan hairstyles also use the male warrior in this video in this way the male warrior is no longer exactly equal to the bond or short hair style the game instead provides players with more different options and collocations so as to overcome the stereotypes

and thirdly um what we did to to to to break those labels is the design of the hair coloring system based on diversity and high aesthetics and this has allowed um natives to make some other achievements in breaking the stereotype as well for example in the recovery point it is also possible to use the hair coloring system to match the any hair color you like allowing players to create freely and to be remembered by others male characters should not direct in

traditional concept such inherent stereotypes have been fought by so many people but in a rocket play point we have no such traditional stereotyped images integrity mobile [Music] we give players more hair color customization options including highlighting parts of their hair as they like dying in gradient color and some other options of course the game also provides the most uh the most basic coloring function which provides a variety of colors for players to to choose from the player chooses on this lovely young girl with two ponytails as his or her character and it's possible for the player to avoid a specific label by dye dyeing her hair into a favorite

favorable color [Music] fourth when designing games based on the premise of conforming to the time background we try to do cultural integration and multi multi-faceted display of different cultures and this means a lot and we will continue to do it because cultures and civilizations all over the world are the heritage of the development stage in human history and if those cultures can be integrated into games that's that's an awesome thing to do so here is an example in naraka playpoint we have incorporated the characteristic hairstyles of other regional cultures and about allowed players to create their own faces in character phase customization either western or eastern style

and everything is possible and this game is not only to match the taste of players from different regions in the world but also to achieve the integration integration integration of various cultures into the game this is also reflected in the design of hairstyles in narcotic point in some other games of neres so i think that's all what we want to share in terms of this topic and please allow me to summarize a little bit here firstly every background in game design is important and do consider player experience and and how to make them immerse more secondly get players into your hair design process if possible and try to listen more to them and thirdly while providing diversity and remember to allow freedom for personality first

cultural blending can get you fans of different backgrounds and finally sometimes it is worth to try label breaking and let's do more about it that's all thank you for listening thank you and if you guys have any questions we would like to answer this okay um we're sorry that well there's no time for left four questions maybe um and thank you guys for coming to our speech and bye have a nice day thank you have a nice nice day bye [Applause] [Music] you