Reflection on year 2 /start of year 3

Ok so once again its the night before I start back at Uni, had time of for summer but unlike last summer I continued to do some work to improve my skills. I mainly focused on my visual design doing a few portraits of different cultures and genders as well as a few landscapes.

The 2nd year was the toughest that I had so far but I also think its the year that I matured the most in my practices. I actually only started doing digital painting properly this year, which at the start was a bit ropey, I had had ever only done 1 digi-painting before which was in the first year. And before then I only worked with traditional media. Looking back on my first digipaint, it seems a bit feeble in comparison to what I could do now. (as the reaction of looking at any of my old works)

I continued to practice digi-painting as it was something I wanted to get more into, weeks and project passed and there was slight improvement with every final piece produced. At times I thought I could have produced better but that is how it is with everything produced by artists. Considering the time frame which we had I tried my hardest with what was alloted and I thought I did fairly well, even with the slump.

My 3d was reasonable from my past experiences but that also improved last year. Where the first 2 projects were a little ropey to say the least, I feel that In the third project being the Mortal engines self portrait I started to step up the game. It was a really hard project and I ended up restarting a few times but the result was quite good in my opinion - the rigging was a little awkward and the low poly, my character seemed to morph into a different race. The group project was good also working in a team for the first time which I put a lot of effort into and we achieved something great.

I continued to work with my critical studies but with both these larger demanding subjects I didn't seem to have the time I managed to give in the first year.

With everything going on, unfortunately I did get the dreaded 2nd year slump where I was getting a bit depressed with the work which I was doing - I also had motivational issues which were difficult to shift. Regrettably towards the end of the year there was a large pile of work I had to go through which meant rushing a little more to get things done for the final hand-in. I regret that happened but if I'm honest I was able to move between projects quite quickly and produce work faster than I ever had before.

To reiterate, even though I had problems with motivation and all It was quite a successful year. I also grown more of a person socially and left my incredibly shy persona behind, still needing to be worked on but these things come with time and practice, Same with Art, same with everything!

--

So that was the 2nd year, now that im entering the 3rd year truthfully I am very anxious about the transition. I cant really comment on if this is how I envisioned myself after these years, I feel like I was a different person back when I started making game modifications and general work arounds with the Quake3 engine. Although what I made in that time I was happy with and enjoyed doing it was considered quite old tech compared to whats available now. This course was like a complete step up from all of that primarily focusing on the artistic qualities than the technical.
Ill be seeing less and less of the tutors leaving it more up to me to produce work which I need to do rather than being spoon fed.
"Run boy! you are free!" is the general feeling for this year but as anything, starting again its a bit frightening. Its also going to be difficult to get back into the mode of working, even though I did a few bits over the summer its still not really the same, but again with time Im sure it'll click once again.
I intend to make a real effort this year ,not saying I didn't make an effort in previous years, but its time to up the game and get this year completed to the best of my ability.

Bring it on 3rd year!

Task 24: Personal review of the second year: Where do you want to go, and how do you get there?

Well this year has been very tough, especially the 2nd semester. I kind of expected it once the year begun with stories I heard but it was different sitting through it.

The first semester played out quite similar to the end of the first year as we have visual design and games production running side by side. At the start of the year I made a propostion to myself to become better at my artwork on the course. The first year was alright but I like to think that iv improoved signicantly since then.
This year I focused more on digital art styles rather than traditional as I didnt have much of a chance to work with it last year, I was a bit fearfull of it also. Im still not 100% clear about digital painting but I was able to learn new techniques and ways about doing it. The painting has gone fairly well but so has my 3d, was concerned about my self portrait project but it actually went very well! Was my second attempt at modelling a humanoid and was surprised at the likeness I managed to achieve.
I spent quite a lot of time looking on face topology to make sure it was just right and if im honest I think it was one of the better 3d models Iv made. (Also enjoyed reading mortal engines as I hadnt done any reading for years!)

Once the 2nd semester started things started getting a little trickier, I was also mainly concerned with this group project.
The group which I wound up with was actually quite stressfull towards the start as they were people who I didnt really speak to. As the weeks went on and we worked more and more together we started to get settled with each other and our individual abilities.
During the course of the group project I struggled quite a lot with the visual design projects, a lot of them pushed towards the weekend with the weekdays full of group project. I managed to keep up with the work load for a couple of weeks but then fell ill and lost a day of working which messed up quite a lot of the other time.
I also struggled with motivational issues, had to really push myself to getting the work done. I did but it was quite a painful process getting stressed about doing my work, with the group project I was quite happy working on it but with the visual design side It was a challenge.
Eventually I managed to get things sorted out and the group project which I had previously feared actually went very well and I made friends with the people in my group.

In a nutshell thats what happened project wise throughout the year.

There was a moment of interest when in visual design we were given a project based on random words, make a story from the nonsense. Asked to make some storyboards and then develop characters from them. I have always been concerned with character design even from GCSE years, I didnt really see myself as doing it as a career as the quality of my desining always seemed very "immature" as though I wasnt sure what I was doing. Im still facing that now but to be honest I really enjoyed concepting the character for that project and produced quite a good portrait. I think since the course did quite a lot of environmental works rather than character Iv started to get a little sick of it and struggle to get interested in it as I used to.
Did a bit more character work on the 2nd semester and I quite enjoyed both of them we tried (The vehicle didnt go as bad either) Although I was struggeling with motivation I really got into these designing projects and enjoyed doing them.
The only thing I think ill have to tackle is that as iv mentioned, the designing and sketching of these characters seems very child like. This is something ill work on over the summer.
Also with the group project I quite enjoyed doing the asset creation, actually did 10 more than I was assigned as I got into it. Although I wasnt entirely comfortable with the texturing side of thigns I think I managed quite a good job. The group project was good since it was like a taster of a game development team, previously in the course we didnt do anything together as a group and we were all pretty independant but this just wouldnt happen in the industry.
I think my interest seems to be in character and asset creation, though I would like to keep my options fairly open I think this is perhaps the direction I would like to take.

Task 23: Life Changing or Career Building?

This is a tough subject to talk about.

Courses centered around the games industry are a bit hit and miss, its quite a strange turn from the more "Acedemic" courses where things are centered around memorising dates and figures. Essentially they are creative based courses be it arts or in the programming side of things. Doing things for a reason - a finished game or level. Sure the acedemic courses make students learn figures and dates for a reason but its not quite the same sort of thing.

In comparison to these courses in question I think I prefer the way the art based courses go about, basically as Iv learned in my foundation art course prior you drive down your own path. If you need help or assistance ask, its about being mature and finding out things on your own rather than being rammed facts down your throat. I can understand some courses need that but for this subject (and me as a person) I prefer how this course unfolds.
During secondary school you were so used to be telling exactly what to do that students going into this faculty arnt used to the freedom found in later stages of education.
Game Art as a course is not the same as foundation art, its a little more centered around games, not only drawn artwork but also in 3d packages. Franckly I prefer art which has a purpose rather than the rubbish you usually get with modern art. I have heard from many people that getting a job in fineart is so difficult as it doesnt really have much of a direction. Though I respect art sometimes things get so farfetched that it becomes useless and uncreative.

Obviously for us it does require some technical learning with the computer programs we use but it still retains this art style course, you cannot tell everyone everything that the program in question can do. Its basically about understanding what you want to acomplish then findout and do it rather than being spoonfed. Some may argue that this may waste time but sometimes the things you work with surprise you which is better than knowing everything at once. It retains the creativity to not realise how much a program can do, it somehow forces you to challenge your preconceptions.

Education in this field is a trickey thing, it would be great if you could remember everything about art and creativity from revising a text book but its simply not the case. Im unsure how else you could study for art. Afterall art is a lot about expression and feeling, not something you program into yourself. To make these courses count students have to learn to be quite independant in their thoughts. Some are not used to this concept comming straight from school or college and so can be a challenge (I sure wasnt!).

You build you own fort which is what these courses are all about, I really dont think you can control the experience as lectures. At the end of the day its about the students utilising other peoples brains when needed.

Task 22: Creativity, the talent myth and craft

From last years creativity task, I spoken about it being more steered towards Art and Design but even in other "unlikely" areas such as programming. People seem to see pretty pictures being more creative than lines of coded text but really its a frame of mind, perhaps the "pwetty" pictures are easier to recognise. I seen it as creating new ideas to solve problems, so in fact this term can go towards a number of things.

Asking people around, the trend of thought is that they believe
that children are born with this creativity and this drains as we get older, particulary when entering the education system.
From an early age we were forced to become more serious in our studies, less time to play around (at least not which doesnt requite an essay/report at the end of it). There seems to be a certain frame of mind of a "good" student which are drilled into everyone of us. With some it works but with the majority they simply cannot stand or handle it, fidgiting in a classroom would be classed as bad behaviour but it could simply be that the child isnt suited for the specific subject.

Being In school I didnt really have an interest in a lot of what was being taught, just kept at it knowing that would get qualifications from it to do what I really wanted. I managed to get quite good GCSE's and Primary school grades which got me into college but right now I couldnt really care less about the subjects which I did during that time, It was a struggle but eventually I got through it.
Looking back this perhaps wasnt the best way to go about it but you cant force someone to be interested in a certain area, all the acedemic subjects I can understand everyone doing them to see what future they bring but this carries on for at least 7 years before the kids really have a choice in what they want to do(but sometimes due to lack of knowing anything else they wind up doing thigns they didnt really want to do anyway). Its quite a shame but its how its been and im sure its the same even now.

It seems that this creativity is pushed aside from quite an early age but it still exists in us, knowing and understanding more can surley help. People, particulary parents, when they see a child do a drawing they immediatly look at it as being creative but usually they do this for fun rather than for a reason. Yes at that age they are carefree but lack some understandings of the environment, how could they?
I wouldnt say that Knowledge learnt in school hinders that but the way in which it is taught does.

Thats generally how I see creativity now, as being a way of solving problems - doing things for a reason.
In terms of games design this creativity is very restricted to the technology used, 3dsmax cannot do absolutly everything but often we see what It can do and work to its limitations. The games engines particulary, an artist could go to a programmer and pitch an innotive idea but wont be possible because of what the programs can do.

People believe that some children are born with talent and the only reason they are skilled in an are is because of genetics, while this can be true in some cases if people have the drive to do something even without genetic techno-babble they will develop themselves.

Task 21: An introduction to the Game Industry

Well not only with Games design but in many companies such as clothing a lot of things are often outsourced for cheaper labour costs, people just don't want to spend the money.

Just typing from what iv seen from the industry so far I would list the specialisms as; Concept Artist, 3d Character Modeller, 3d Environment Modeller, Sound Designer, Programmer, Texture Artist, Graphic Designer, UI work, Level Designer, Scripting and animation.
Just for now these are the areas im aware of.

http://www.skillset.org/games/careers/article_2768_1.asp
Looking on this website what iv listed is pretty much what is listed with Skill set with the exception of Storyboarding which would make sense. Particularly with games with cinematics or scripted animation events.
The management of the project and of course the testing of the damn thing! All quite important things with quite specialised people working on them.

Even though im in the 2nd year im still quite unsure about what I would like to specialise, however its good to get a big picture of what's going on in the industry. I have had some form of experience in quite a few of these areas but being on this course I think I am more interested in the creation of the characters/environments.
These seem to be the 2 major things im interested in pursuing, for the moment Im driven more towards characters and asset creation, I seem to have gone off environments quite a lot. The problem is many people go for these roles above the rest and the competition is fierce. My skills at the moment in Character design are quite lacking, im not terribly happy with the way I go about designing them.

But yes there are other areas in game development to consider and if there is no success in the character/environment creation there may be other areas I could consider.

Task 20: Elements of game technology, part three: interaction design

Well yes, these days there is a lot more interactivity with games compared to other years. Since Iv been in Uni it started as the Wii being the King Of This Hill with the use of people physically moving around to scroll through windows and menus not to mention the game play but quite recently Xbox and PS3 Have Released Kinect and the Playstation Move.

I am yet to try these out but from videos and Tv grabs they are pretty sophisticated, more impressed by the Kinect tracking body movement as the psmove is pretty standard in comparison. The old question of when Virtual Reality will be developed is becoming sooner and sooner, maybe not in the recent coming year but certainly within the next 10 years. The gamepads as iv mentioned are becomming more slender (Even now Im using a keyboard with a curved design to prevent hand strain) basically following the forms of the body. Although it may sound sci-fi soon there may even be an entity that adapts to the curvature and shape of the person wielding it.

Not only to mention gaming input devices the actual games have become ever interactive allowing more things to be done but with the lack of buttons/input directions its starting to reach its limit. Things such as press A to open cage, to Pressing a combination in Call Of Duty for arming a bomb. Quite standard in these present games but in comparison to Super Mario on the snes its come a long way. It greatly depends on the type of game.

Obviously with the introduction to these interactive features in controlling, Game Design will change opening doors to new ideas and ways of player controllability.

Task 19: Elements of Game Technology, part two: Sound for Games

Well I know how important sound is in games, and its also an area which many people in colleges and things don't really go for. I remember my old sound design teacher at college saying that there are not too many people doing it these days and its quite in demand. I have done sound design before (and maybe for the group project also if possible)and understand the importance of it in games. It must be done precisely to fit the visual atmosphere, its basically like adding a whole other layer to game development. Games design in essence focuses on your senses obviously sight and sound are the majors, the other senses are used less frequently in games although you could argue that the vibration feature on some game pads could be classed as touch.

Some of my favourite pieces of music come from games and in modern games they are done so well, it is past the days of old generic computer based music. Many games have become very cinematic also and as the years have gone by the quality and funding for sound and music has gone up. Large orchestras are commonly used these days.
To specify the key sonic moments in my gaming history its kind of hard to say, as iv said some music from games are part of my playlists.

Iv played many Star Wars games which use the original soundtracks from the film which are used quite often but this doesn't really count. From the first game I bought and played (Crash Bandicoot) had some great songs for its genre, quite iconic pieces. Yeah to be honest most of the games iv played iv liked the music to.

AH yes, Good Times Nile Rogers. Remember from last year.
Well its not a bad song, I remember it going towards the Halo Themes and so quite influential. Liked the songs from the Halo Series, interesting in the 3rd with remixes of the first 2 games which I really liked to be honest.

Task 18: Elements of Game Technology, part one: Game Engines

Well yes the group project is coming up in the 2nd semester and we will be using the Unreal Editor UDK which I haven't really touched much, opening the screen is a scary looking area. As Iv mentioned I had used the Quake 3 Engine but from what iv heard and seen from previous years Unreal is more powerful making my previous experience quite primitive in comparison.
With the quake3 engine it was really quite limited in what you could do, while I was using it the most you could do really is draw a box or something, player start and basic lighting. At the time it was scary to look at also but is so much simpler in comparison to what iv seen Unreal do. Quake3 is very obsolete now and I think I pushed it to its limit while using it, it had a very low tolerance to polygons in characters and textures and in terms of animation you had little control over what things did. You also couldn't see or test it in the editor. You have to export the map file each time you wanted to test it, from videos of Unreal it displays in real time which would be very handy and save a heck of a lot of time.
In Unreal it seems to have a friendlier interface for assigning textures to objects, a quick drag lines to the sorts of textures, type in values but seems to have more control over the tiling feature and how its displayed. Also has a key-framing feature like in 3dsmax which Quake3 didn't have, there seems to be a lot more freedom in what you could do with it. There is a lot more support with UDK as it has a proper website dedicated to it providing videos to those who download it. With Quake3 you were pretty much left in the dark about it.

Though I am more comfortable with the quake3 engine as I have used it quite a lot I think the navigation and general feel should be quite similar to each other.

Task 17: Elements of game design, part six: documentation

OK well as far as the Final Major Project goes im still quite unsure for what I would like to do but for the sake of this exercise I will invent a Project outline and see how I would go about doing it.

Project Outline, an example:
Design and model a small group of modern day pirates complete with a barren island.
The pirates after surviving a violent storm find themselves washed up on an incredibly rigid and dangerous island with a captive dragged along with them. Exploring the shore trying to figure out where they are and what their plan of action is. Eventually the Captive escapes and the group become separated, the player takes the role of the captive and goes on the run for survival.
The target platform is Xbox 360,Ps3 and PC and acts as a 3rd person adventure/survival game. Quite a dangerous scene it would be target more towards the adult audience. Would be using the unreal engine along with Photoshop and 3dsmax for asset and character creation.

Technical Specifications
The lead Character is the Captive, in game the gender and appearance will be user defined but for the sake of the project a Middle aged man. Battered around by the Pirates with tattered casual clothing (for use in colder environments) with a festival of wounds and scrapes.
As a main character the limit would be 9000 Tris, 2 Diffuse 1024x1024 texture sheets complete with 512x512 normals and specular sheets, rigged with no more than 28 bones.

NPCS
A small group of 4 modern day pirates each individual wearing worn casual/gang clothing, armed with Rifles and pistols with a few tattoos and custom accessories.

There is 1 major "Captain" who would be given the same technical specifications as the Main character, 9000 Tris, 2 Diffuse 1024x1024, 512x512 Spec and Normals, 28 Bones.

3 Other "drone" pirates that would have less tris than the main characters, 4000 Tris each with 1 1024x1024, 1 512x512 For clothing and Face/skin.

Vehicle
As the characters are survivors of a storm the vehicle would be the pirates ship, battered and in pieces on the shore.
1x1024x1024 Diffuse/Spec and Normals, 4000 Tris.

Environment
The environment is A rigid, Rainy Island; Shore, Forest area and Cliff face would be accessible with a human crafted sign nearing the end of the level. Run at 25 fps.

War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast

The other day we started our WotW project where we get to design and concept our own Tripod Machine which Im quite excited about - always liked War Of The Worlds and have seen it in an elderly and more modern film as well as listening to Jeff Waynes Musical.
Always liked it and the idea is British which makes a nice change..

Anyway yeah I heard and read about the radio broadcast which drove panic in America with some of its population believing it and trying to escape the alien invasion (I thought this was excellent!)But I never had the chance to actually listen to it until now and I was quite interested in how it was done.

It sounded authentic to how radio stations have been/are still done with news reports and musical numbers inbetween, I was surprised to how quickly it seemed reported and the "journalists" going to different areas of the country (whether it was just edited into Youtube sections or not im not sure) quite quickly but still kept its "Nah nevermind, heres something we hope you REALLY like!" which was quite fun.
I could imagine being frightened by this in that era (back then not being as sophisticated as modern times) with people not really understanding the media or how things work (no offence to them its just how it was).

Yeah it was done quite well I thought that the "reporters" still tried to keep their cool about the situation, quite amusing to hear something to the effect of:
"Wha--Whats that comming out of the cylinder, a--- a WHAT IS THAT? Whats that nozzle comming up? AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
"Sorry we are experiencing minor technical problems (*insert Spanish Flea Jingle*)"

Quite funny in a dark way for me being the listener in this modern era.
Yes I was glad I managed to hear it as it was quite interesting and entertaining.

Simon Reed

Quite an interesting talk we had today, someone who works in the industry as a game interface designer. Im fairly interested in this as I had touched on this a bit during my game modification days, was changing the original splash screens/menu images, colours and also icons which were used in game. Its good thinking about how things are designed, things such as cashpoints and mobile phone menus etc. Although I already realised that design goes into these its easy to take it for granted, usually its done very well but there are some points which are a bit confusing with certain designs. One example is that i recently bought a new phone and while txting was trying to select a person to send it to but I was confused to what was actually highlighted. All that you seen was what looked like a white background and a blue selection area, scrolling up and down looking for what was selected on the blue but in fact the selection was in white and the background was blue, after realising this it became very logical but at first sights I was unsure. (Also on my old phone the selection was in blue on a white background) The thing about interface and HUD's is that it must be easily understood and have a certain logic to it from the first sight.
I studied a course in graphic design (and also knew about it as my dad's a graphic designer) so I get the jist of how things work, at some points doing graphic design seems like a natural talent to me. Although its not really a skill im wanting to go into buisiness with creating things such as interface, DvD/Game covers is sometimes quite enjoyable.
Anyway yeah the talk with Simon was quite informative and reminded me about interface design, one thing which I thought was interesting is that technologies are changing and so will the interface. Rather than boring old text in 4 corners of a screen its constantly evolving to be a lot more innotive and creative, seen in the presentation was the use of the 3d menu's as if the screen is your head turning and looking for things (like in a FPS game) which adds a lot more interest to simply finding the "Start Game" button. Another interesting example I seen in the talk was about in a 3rd person shoot-em-up where rather than the health being a PNG/ALpha overlapping everything it was actually visible on the back of the characters themselves. This was a sci-fi shooter where things like this would work rather than a game such as Crash Bandicoot where basically 1 hit and you die.
I would be interested to see that interface in action. Yeah it was a good talk and had a lot of insights, he originally worked in 3d but didnt want to stop there, kept his options open but sort of a contradiction in the fact that as 2nd years we are meant to have a goal thought about and go towards it, but I believe Simon was referring to in the professional world outside of education.

Task 16: Elements of game design, part seven: level design

I would agree that level design is not only visual, but more like stage design as it is creating an environment which characters can interact with, but only what is available to the players. During my attempts at level design in previous years the key thing is that you as the designer have to think about the limitations of the game engine, for example having a large area where every single side of the models have a texture on where you wouldn't necessarily see or want the players to be able to see is more cost effective to frame rate and general compatibility.
Like in stage design there are many things in the background, underneath the simulated floor boards and walls/environment which are not meant to visible to the audience, but can aid in keeping the environments/props up. With the engines iv been using the way which you can reduce frame rate, rather than drawing every side(even if meant not to be seen) is by using shaders - known as the CAULK shader as seen here: http://www.richdiesal.map-craft.com/tutorials/gc102lsn1.html
Basically a texture is applied to a mesh or a model and then you select the areas of the model which are not to be seen by the players and apply this shader which tested in games doesn't draw these sides, if seen behind the model (areas players aren't meant to access) the sides would be completely transparent where you could see in but players couldn't see out.

Yes level design is very close to set design in films, areas need planned based on;
-The size of the player in game
-Whats meant to happen in game
-Triggerable events.

Its very hard to specify exactly what level design is, its very technical compared to the concept artist where the designers have to figure out where/how to place objects, to work out the lighting and general game physics, and to be able to do things which a game engine can understand. Its a way of working out how to do things which Iv experienced myself, for example;
In a previous level I worked on my task was to suggest to the player that a stone door doesnt work, the opening mechanism is operational but there is a mechanical problem i.e a large piece of debris on the other side which has crashed into the door and the door cannot open.
The way I did it quite simply was to have a trigger where I wanted the door switch to be once pressed (simultaneously)
>It would play a sound which I edited, in this case a Stone door attempting to open upwards, and then a piece of machinery giving way - out of sight
>It would activate a timer which at the precise moment in the sound effect where the machinery gives way a "Trigger_Breakable" would self destruct.
The result is an interpretation of a door refusing to open.

Where this is very long winded to explain its basically solving problems based around the limitations of a game engine. Its a large area where you could go on and on giving examples of how to suggest things in a game but its taking a concept, thinking about it and translating it through the senses.

Task 15: Elements of game design, part six: visual composition

Well yes visual composition is perhaps one of the most important thing in presenting work either for a portfolio or in the gaming universe and I think it takes certain skill to be able to judge this and to be able to use the "artists eye".
If im honest im not that confident with my artistic judgement. While working/ giving crits to other peoples work, there are a few things which I notice to look "wrong" but that is mainly just about finishing the image but to be able to say to myself something to the effect of "oh perhaps if i put a few cans of beer on that street corner it would help" a basic example but at times I feel like I have a few problems with it. I dont think im able to easily recognize areas that need improvement or to be able to suggest things that can be done. I believe this judgement will develop in time - as anything it needs practice and I would need to immerse myself in different pieces of artwork and be able to analyze them properly and professionally.
Composition can do a lot for a subject/asset, for example in producing a 3d model/drawing which I am not terribly pleased with, it can be set up in such a way that makes it interesting to look at, almost like designing a portfolio. To the general public visual composition is usually taken for granted and they often dont realize why things work, but contrary to this they can usually tell when something looks obviously wrong (I believe its partly to do with the media-based era we are living in). In one of the previous blog tasks where I looked at that 40 page essay on concepting and planning, it made me realize even more how important this is. My final piece for the Bradgate park had evolved more than I thought it would as I spent a little bit of time doing very quick sketches of what I wanted and also trying to work out how things flow in the final image. During my first year I didn't really do this and I think some of the reasons things worked was because of this "random chance". This year I realized that for things to look at their best - even if the subject matter isnt that interesting - planning the composition is the way to go and if the concept is visually engaging more interest will spark in your artwork which also acts as the driving force to get you producing more interesting and exciting work.
I believe that this year the quality of my work has increased and am able to put more hours into it without getting tired/bored of them as opposed to last year. Though I wouldn't say I am particularly strong in my technical skills, brush strokes - easy texture construction etc, because I have more of an understanding of how things work together visually and compositionally the work Im producing has been enhanced. For these skills to develop I basically need to continue to really look at produced things and differentiate the good points and the bad points.

Task 14: Planning and Concepting

"Art Process Boot Camp. Bring a helmet."

I found this to be a very interesting read, almost as if i really needed to read it. To be honest I dont feel like im much artistically and I really need to improve in my work.
It was good to see how a professional would produce things as it emphasizes how much the planning means to the final outcome, I dont believe I plan enough and my work suffers - sometimes I manage to produce some good finals but with more planning I believe they will drastically improve.
I like the way she has given rules of thumb in her tutorial as it gets me to remember them, I feel like writing them out and sticking them around my room.
It was quite a read and I think I would have liked to seen some more "Work in progress" pieces between the main pictures posted.
Its good that she posted "Rule 7: Always be aware at how the element materials of your painting affect and are affected by the environment" and then gave some examples, in my work I dont think I pay much attention to the actual materials - sure I want them to look as realistic as possible but I dont feel like I understand it particularly well at the moment.
Yeah it was a good read and I believe it helped me a bit, she has obviously done this quite a lot as it shows in how she has painted areas, Im still relatively new to digital painting (And general art work) but she stresses that these steps she has listed seem more important than ability - the ability comes with time and practice.
I really like her final image and also how she has used the motion blurs to emphasize certain areas, its interesting that to me this is a very good piece but she her self still has problems with it, almost at the point of binning it - this shows that she still feels like she needs to improove a heck of a lot.
(I feel the same way with most of the work that I produce also)

I defiantly need to develop the skill of planning and concepting, I dont feel like the work I was producing was that very well guided and almost felt like I was just doing it because it had to be done rather than doing to improve in understanding and production. I wish to be able to produce work faster and to a better standard than my previous productions, as i said in previous posts about wanting this 2nd year to be a vast improvement from the first and that I need to develop, this gives me tools(skills) that i need to now continue to use but more importantly, to use and develop.

[List of the rules]
Rule #1: If it doesn't work at the size of a postage stamp, it won't work at any size
rule #2: If it doesn’t work in value, it won’t work in color
Rule #3: always try to avoid centering anything and avoid odd tangents.
Rule #4: the farther from the focal point, the blurrier the details in an atmosphere.
Rule #5: the stronger the contrast, the more the focus.
Rule #6: the stronger the saturation, the more the focus.
Rule #7: always be aware at how the element materials of your painting affect and are affected by the environment

Blitz Guest Lecture2

Last year We had a similar talk about the Blitz company and a lot of the areas were recovered, Speaking about the importance for artwork in the arts and animation department and also looking at the different areas in Blitz.
Last year I didnt really have a goal to go towards which wasn't as bad this time around, looking at jobs I was quite interested in the environmental area but also in asset creation. At the moment I dont feel confident enough to be able to specify exactly, looking at what was done in the lecture I seemed more interested in the character side of things - but my skills at the moment wouldn't be up to their standards to do.

It would take a lot of practise but I wish I would be able to get to that sort of standard by the time I finish this course, I would also like to speed up quite a lot in my work.
I think now is the time to actually try and make this possible, not having much of a goal last year I wasnt entirely sure about what I wanted to do but from what I seen in that lecture I was mainly interested in the things which looked the most interesting and complex, things which jump at you having in-mind the awesomeness.

I would like to be able to get competent in both 3D and my 2D skills to be able to do things to that standard, I think im steered more towards the 3d side of things but to be employable I really need to be equally good in both areas.

Was interesting to see the sorts of things they work on again and although im not sure about working for Blitz it gives me more of an insight in what I would like to be doing as a career.

Momento

An interesting film that kept going back and fouth between the past and the present.
The actual story played backwards but also had some sections in black and white which played forwards and the climax was actually in the middle of the story.

Was quite interestingly done but you had to stay very focused on what was happening along with the other sections in the story. Its hard to know what to say about it as a lot of things happened but I really enjoyed it.

It was all well done but I am curious to if it was played in a more linear way - start to finish if it would have the same effect. I would say that it may not have been as exciting but to know the climax before it was meant to be known (But with no Back knowledge of the scene makes it just as thrilling)
The scenery in the film did represent what was going on, using a fairly cheap motel as a starting point where you would expect this sort of corruption to happen, although its quite obvious why them areas were chosen for filming but still the scenes worked very well.

The ironic thing also is that you would need a pretty good memory to put together all the scenes in backward, chronological and in a middle order. This simulates what the character may have gone through which was a good touch but Im not sure this was intentional. Myself not having a perfect memory i found myself trying very hard to stay focused and help the story playout in my mind.

Was a good film but at the very end of the film I was a little bit confused with things, the explanation from the Teddy character, as this was trying to remember all the time line in a non linear fashion.

Airplane!

Well I already seen this film before and it is still quite good, personally I prefer the 2nd one (i also seen these films in the wrong order, first the 2nd then the first). Although its quite dated its still watchable and still quite rude by todays standards, it uses features which were commonly used in filmography such as a blue screen behind a car set with a rolling film. The creators/directors work with this to make it obvious to what it is and they add elements to it making it funnier for the audience.

Another feature is the dialogue, common phrases which we have all heard are mistranslated in the film in a funny way;
A good example is the scene where the doctor tells the stewardess that he has to get a patient to a hospital where the woman replies "What is it?" referring to what the medical problem is but through direct listening its as if she is asking what a Hospital is where then the doctor replies "it's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now." Typing it down doesn't give it justice but the idea was good.

Yeah its a comedy film at the end of the day full of jokes based around a serious subject of a plane crash. Its better when you see these sort of films the first time around since you don't expect them to happen the way they do but they are still good. As I said i prefer the 2nd one to the first one which sometimes doesn't work with sequels, there was more going on in it and I believe it was a bit longer in feature length.

Anyway Airplane! is a worthwhile film to watch, i'd recommend to anyone.

Task 13: 2nd Year Reflection

Well, here I am in the 2nd year now. The first year went alright I believe, I did many different things in both Visual Design and Games production and found it interesting to work with the different weekly essay type tasks.
So in general it was a good year but if I am honest I wasn't very happy with some of the work I produced, I didn't feel particularly confident in the things which I was doing.
Since I came from a more technical based background I struggled a bit with the visual design drawing section - but also even though I had experience with 3ds Max I wasn't able to do as well as I would have liked. I feel like the first year was like a taster course and I was happy to be accepted into the 2nd year where I now promise to myself that I would work harder, and be able to have more confidence in the work which I produce.

In terms of ambitions, im not really sure. In my spare time during and before the first year I found myself making many playable Game modifications including a bit of character design,
graphical HUD's and Menu design,
sound design,
Level Design and
3D playable vehicles.

Over the summer I found myself going more towards the level/environmental design as I was producing a set of story based game levels, but I still have an interest in making the assets for games. I think im more geared towards the actual development of games, thinking about a wider picture of things within a game and then working through it. I'm not really sure as I haven't really looked on what sort of things are available.

Looking at Blitz Game Studios.com
3d Modeller & Texture Artist - looks quite interesting
Technical artist - im not too keen on
Visual Effects Artist - Looks interesting but it doesn't get me excited
Concept Artist - This would be a good pathway but as I am at the moment I wouldn't feel confident to be able to do it. I struggle with envisioning and designing products (As seen in the Vehicle From Shapes project of Last year)
GUI Artist - Although I have worked a bit on this a while ago in my spare time But it wouldn't be something that I would like to Specialize in.
Texture Artist - Again Im still not that confident with the texturing side of things but seems quite good if I was able to do it reasonably well.
So I think my main interest would be to go into the 3D modeling & Texture artist specialism.
Looking on the Games Design section of the Blitz website I am quite interested in the Level Editing/Designing section as I have done this before on my own and have enjoyed doing it although Im not that engaged with the scripting side of it.

Im still not fully sure what I would like to go into the most, Ill look on the Eurocom website.
In the open vacancies the 3D artist (Environmental Artist) I think would be the one to go for, in its description it is very similar to the Blitz specialism although focuses more on the Environmental side which I find myself more interested in. It states about producing props, weapons, and other things, also in the 3D Artist Job Description it also has a section on Character Modeling which as a whole would be quite interesting as its not specialized in 1 small area but is actually quite vast and exciting.

I have no interested in programming what so ever, otherwise I would have searched for a different University course than this one.

Looking on these 2 websites as a start Im interested more in the Eurocom 3D Artist
which covers all environmental but also character and prop development.

District 9

I bought the dvd of this film to check it out - I was interested but didnt get a chance
to see it.

Well yes it was very different, following an interview style narrative (kidding along at
the start with the prefabricated "The views in these interviews....") Quickly jumped you
into the world of the film using news reportage with the typical shakey camera effect you get with the media - also the type of lens. This made it very believable as it was using things which we could identify with; Again the CGI, Design and effects were excellent but compaired to the New Star Trek film I recently seen, the story and the way it was told was far superiour.
It was a British film suprisingly and wasnt Americanised (which I was a bit afraid of) and it had elements which me, as a british person, could identify with.

Its hard to summarise the film as there was a lot happening, loads of effects but it also had a darkness towards it with the xenophobic attitude towards the aliens, but also the aliens seeming quite corrupt - as seen in dark alleys in cities dealing in weapons and drugs.Each were balanced but in some ways throughout the whole film the Aliens were treated as scum and unable to have their own voice with humans prodding forms into their chests, failure to follow these structures and they would be shot.

This sort of attitude was clear in the film and it made you connect with the species.
All in all it was a great film full of political and moral controversy, its hard to specify anymore what was good or bad about it. There was a lot in it;
you could connect with the characters,
you could see the corruption in the media and humanity,
it gave you a picture of world events (even if set in an alternate reality)

Was just very well done and had a strong storyline and I really enjyoed watching it.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

This was an interesting, dark British film with Jason Statham (from the transporter films) staring as 1 of the characters. Personally im not a great fan of these dark crime based British films as the living conditions portrayed in the films involving lieing, deceit and violence would definatly not be the way I would like to Live.
Anyway they are very good at showing these.

The film was produced in 1998 but for me while watching, seemed to be late 80's - early 90's. The film grain was apparent and although I know it may not have been intentional because of technology, it helped supplement the dark atmosphere of the film. The characters were as you would expect and at the start of the film were clearly labeled by a narrator.
Its hard to think of what to say more about this film, the story-lines all interlocked where at the start things seemed to be all over the place. Towards the start when a character apparently lost the Casino game, although the card game was explained in the film I was still confused to what were classed as good or bad cards, the sequence where the main character puts cards down and walks off i was in mixed thought as to what actually happened but due to the way the camera was going around the character (almost like an artistic impression of a headache/migrane) quickly suggested loss and defeatism. Was quite well done even though I didn't fully understand the card game.

The film carried on switching between the gangs and individual characters and eventually wound up at the destruction of them all (Apart from the main character Group) which was quite well done. Hard to pinpoint exactly what was good about it, it had a pinch of dark humor about it.
Although I dont care much for those who deal in crime, I was happy to learn that the group who we met from the start ended up to be the ones who still survived.
The "Cliffhanger" at the end of the film was a good touch, where the group could still get a lot of money from the stolen rifles - although a few minutes ago, thoughts of police looking for them, tieing the group to the investigation, wanted the rifles destroyed. (Doesn't do justice in words) and having the ending where the audience could choose what happens, if the character drops the rifles into the river, or if he answers the phone.
Personally for me, I would like to just leave it at that situation rather than choose what he would do.

So it was quite a well done film, quite dark in setting, lifestyle and humor and although not my first choice for a film to watch It was quite entertaining.