“Diorama – a model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures, either in miniature or as a large-scale museum exhibit, this is the google definition for diorama.”

Different types of diorama:
Miniatures Diorama – Miniature dioramas are typically much smaller, and use scale models and landscaping to create historical or fictional scenes
Full-size Dioramas – Typically, these displays use a tilted plane to represent what would otherwise be a level surface, incorporate a painted background of distant objects, and often employ false perspective, carefully modifying the scale of objects placed on the plane to reinforce the illusion through depth perception.
3D Dioramas – are a type of Computer generated diorama that are typically used for games to generate a sort of still based scene that allow someone to look around in it.
Programming Base Diorama – Programming dioramas are blocked out level layouts that are used to display how a level will look and how the player will be able to interact with said level.

Diorama mind map:

This is the mind map I generated for dioramas that explores what they can include and what dioramas are used for today, I worked with these for a little bit looking at different industries and while i was looking into them I found that a lot of similarities between all of them like using miniatures to come up with ideas of how they want a scene to look making it easier to come up with a basic reference for a scene this way. Looking into it some more I found that a large majority of full scale dioramas used for presentation where they take a scene or something out of a game or movie and freeze frame and build it these are used in games as miniatures collectables but in movies they are used as promotional material as well to catalogue special movies from big companies.

Diorama Games Mood board:
I will be looking into games dioramas, it lead me to look into 3 major areas programming, 3D and, 2D. They all do there dioramas differently but use some of the same techniques, 2D artist can blockout scenes then take a picture and build there art off it and 3D artists can make a sketch of what they want and then work from it with a block out, programming was something different there diorama are interactive that allow people to see what parts of the game will react towards the player. These images were chosen because of the how they represented there specializations they were good examples of dioramas and how they would be presented in a games fashion. When making this I ranged the images adding in some simple ones and made sure to show off some more advanced ones as well. I looking not only into 3D dioramas but i also looked into 2D so that I had a larger spectrum of focus to show off what games includes I could not find any programming examples so I have shown a video beneath it.

Diorama Films Mood board:
Looking into films and how they use mood boards I have found out that lots of films use them as either planning or to do a small scale scene. An example of a film that does this would be Star wars with the scene where Luke sky walker attacks the death star trench to blow up the core, this was done as a little model and and was all engineered to seem big with camera tricks but it was model and planned out to look like it was the death star when in reality it was only a small component. Films also do this with things like Disney films where they a part taken from the film and make it a display for people to look at. I chose these images because they give good example of how Dioramas are used in movies and how they are not only used for planning but also to create the film in the end like a diorama of a film scene can either be miniature scale or full scale.

Diorama Museum Mood board:
After researching into museums I discovered that they mainly used scene based full size dioramas that show a creature or a piece of history, looking more into the different types of museums I found that Art museums do interactive dioramas that allow the people who are looking at them to interact with it and seem to show another level to the piece. I choose these images because of the way they are presented and how they can turn a small scenes into a big one with simple backgrounds, they are used to record interesting events or massive events in history like WW2.

Dioramas/Level Layouts in video games how are they used and what for?

Programming:
Level layouts are used in programming, they are made to allow programmers to get a base idea of where things will go in the level and what parts will have functionality with temp assets like blocked out doors and buttons made of temp assets that they have downloaded. Layouts are a really good way for programmers to continue working with out the finished assets or even using WIP (Work in progress) assets that are just a temp one that are still being finalized. Example of this:

Concept Art:
In art sections of games development dioramas are used to do a vast number of things, and this includes colour testing, asset testing (Looking at how assets come together in small scene like placement) sketching and photobashing. 2D artist allow 3D artist to work off what they have done but not only that they drive a large amount of the development of the scene or level, using colour ideas they can show how a colour looks in a mock up of the scene in 2D and then it can be transferred to 3D. 2D dioramas are used to generate a concept sketech then a final design of how a scene will look later this will be translated too 3D and will be worked on closely with both 2D and 3D.

3D diorama:
In the 3D section dioramas are used in some games as whole scene take a look at “captain cove treasure tracker” for example the entire environment is a diorama that you can play on, another example of a game that uses a diorama would be games like Starcraft and age of empires they use assets like barracks buildings which are made and then placed on a tillable terrain. games 3D dioramas are based most of the time on concept art given to them by the 2D art team and this allows them to already have a base idea of how said object will look or how it will turn out.