Speed Paint

Word: Cast
30 mins

Speed Paints

Decided to start doing some speedy paintings, and here's the first 2.

Word: Vision
30 mins

Word: Imagination (dont ask why i thought of a turtle on wheels)
20 mins

The Secret Of The Legend

So i was looking through some old files on my pc and came across this little gem, it's a creative writing piece that i did somewhere around year 9, which at the time i thought was pretay good. I looked through it with my house mates other day and we all cracked up laughing, it's good and interesting to see how my mind worked back then, Tim was saying he could understand exactly what i was seeing and trying to do but the clichés are just so funny. now i did do this a long time ago and for some reason i dont have the final draft saved so there are a fair amount of mistake but im sure it all adds to the fun, but enough of the preview, time to sit back and enjoy this 6 page story titled 'The Secret Of The Legend'.

The Secret of the Legend

‘She closed the door and was never seen again’

That was the legend of what happened on the island ‘I.B.B.’, and to this day nobody knew what happened, why it happened or how it happened.

Bang! The wheels of the plane hit the runway hard and fast. A young lady walked down the stairs of the plane. She was a fine looking lady, in her twenties wearing a long white coat and a flat but wide white hat with her hair dangling from it. She was then followed by a strange looking man wearing greenish combat trousers and an old army style jacket. He was struggling with rather a lot of bags which were on his back, under both of his arms and every other place he could manage. He looked up at the sky with his hand sheltering his head and said.
“Great day, isn’t it Jose.”
“Yes.” she slowly said “now let’s get going.”
A new Jaguar pulled up and Jose jumped out and flipped her hair from her sunglasses. Jose was the kind of girl who knew what she wanted. She didn’t let adventure find her; she went out and found adventure. Then when she found it she attacked it with full determination, and never left a job unfinished.
“Um, Jose I need some help, with these bags, ah, Ahh, help!” Malcolm yelled.
“Okay Malcolm.” She walked up to Malcolm, looked at the large jumble of bags and picked a small handbag. She smiled at him and walked off.
“Cheers.” Malcolm said sarcastically.
She pushed both of the doors open, and as she did the wind pushed her hair and coat in the reverse direction.
“Hello.”, a voice said from behind the desk, “And welcome to the Big Blue Island Hotel. Have you pre-booked or will you just be staying the one night.”
“The names Jose Sharday.”
“Oh we have been expecting you Jose.” but as he said it he cocked his head to one side, and gazed into her eyes. Jose looked back at him and said in confusion, sorry. He shook his head and said
“How many rooms, miss.”
Just as he said that Malcolm fell in lugging all the bags behind him.
“Two please.” she smiled as she said it.

Malcolm walked into Jose’s room with his head backwards saying “Hey, I thought we were getting window view roo………….WOW!”
“Something wrong Malcolm?” Jose remarked.
Malcolm looked round her room with his eyebrows raised. He didn’t say anything but he wasn’t very happy
“Now let’s go shopping.” Jose told him
Malcolm didn’t ever want to go shopping but he didn’t have much choice. He told her that they were on vacation but she just said on vacation she goes shopping. He sarcastically commented “Oh yeah of course we do.”

On their way out they bumped into the hotel manager.
“You must be Jose Sharday, my, my you have grown indeed.”
She looked at him with confusion. She hadn’t the slightest clue who he was or how he knew her.
“I’m sorry you probably don’t remember me. I’m Niles Spedmen.” Niles had worked with Jose’s dad, but about 2 years ago he had died on a dig in South America.
“I’m truly sorry for your loss and I would like to take his daughter out for dinner some time. Maybe tonight eight o’clock.”
Jose looked at him and said “maybe.” then walked off as Malcolm commented on him being a jerk, she agreed.

It was a really hot day on Big Blue Island. Big Blue was a small island off the Spanish coast, it got its name from the fact it rarely rained on the island and the sky was always big and blue. But this was no normal island it was mainly an ancient volcano and from it made the island a great place to be. There were hot springs all round places to go and see and regular trips up the volcano.
“So ever been on a volcano before Jose?”
“Yes, several times.”
“And if we continue on the tour mam.” the tour guide was getting impatient, and frankly who wouldn’t in the tremendous heat. About half way on the tour Jose spotted some men carrying large boxes. The tour guide explained that they had recently found an ancient hidden chamber that had some very, very old treasure in it. But there was something else to it, some sort of great power, some thing that was so amazing that it could change the very way of life, but nobody knew how to get this great god like power.

Later that night Jose came out of her room to wake Malcolm up. Malcolm wasn’t too happy that he had been woken up on vacation to go out night crawling.
“This had better be good.” Malcolm was still half asleep.

They were both walking out in the back streets of the island but Malcolm didn’t have a clue why.
“What are we doing out at this hour again ON VACATION!!”
Jose being adventures wanted to find out more about this ‘ancient chamber’ but Malcolm wasn’t too happy about being up that late on vacation, but he still went along
“Look over there.” Jose had spotted the boxes that the men were carrying down the volcano earlier “let’s go.”
“What was that noise?” There were two men on guard and one was saying he was hearing noise. At first the other man didn’t believe him but the he heard it too.
“Let’s check it out.” the men agreed
As the too men walked between some boxes, a voice from behind said “hello boys.” the two men snapped round, but as they did Jose flattened them both. Malcolm looked down at them and acted as if he had done all the work
“Can we go now Malcolm?”

They’d been walking for a while and Malcolm was starting to worry that they had took a wrong turn on the way. But just as he was about to open his mouth, the door to the chamber appeared. The entrance was only illuminated by the light of the moon, but inside it was pitch black. Luckily Jose came prepared as she had a flare to light the way; it was as if she new perfectly what to do. Eventually they came to a large chamber. She moved the light into the middle. The room was amazing full of gold and stone pillars, and at the end was a very large stone door.
“Well we’d better start looking.” Jose always loved a challenge and Malcolm was going to ask what they were looking for but it was probably the usual, handle here, lever there, and poof, it was all solved.
“Jose, JOSE look what I have found.”
“No you come here.” Jose had found a very old stone tablet, it read;

‘She who is destined will find the way and see the wonders
that have never been seen before’

“What’s it mean then?” Malcolm said
Jose didn’t know but she also thought that the people who found it didn’t know either. Then Malcolm showed Jose what he had found. It was a small green diamond, but as he got it out a voice spoke.
“Jose, what are you doing here?” Jose looked up and saw a man but he was just a silhouette.
“Well, why are you here?” the man asked.
“That all depends on who you are.” Jose didn’t want him to know why she was there, yet.
“Maybe, but I think you are trying to steal what I have spent so long trying to find.”
“Oh really, and what might that be.”
“Oh I think you know after all you are the daughter of a great man.”
“Who are you?” Jose asked impatiently.
The man stepped forward into the light……as the light hit his face Jose saw that it was Niles.
Niles then said “You see as our dinner arrangements were at eight, and it’s now nine thirty.”
Jose rolled her eyes. He then went on to explain how her dad always said she was very adventuress so she’d probable found her way in to his chamber as he called it.
“You don’t even know what this place dose.” Jose yelled at him
“Well, we’ll see about that. Did you know I have very persuasive methods of getting to know what I want? And also did they ever tell you how your dad died?”
Jose’s eyes grew big, and as she stared at him she felt a mixture of feelings. Sadness but rage on how he dare say that.
“I bet that they told you he got cut by a blade or had an illness and just dropped off.” Niles seemed to be getting to her now she let her anger fill her mind and was ready to lash out him. Then he said something that shed never forget.
“But he was actually a very pathetic little man. I’ll tell you what happened two years ago. It would be my pleasure.”

Two years ago in the South American desert, a tragedy happened that was hidden till now. “Niles what are you doing, what are you doing?”
“Oh Peter Sharday you are so weak.” Niles walked round Mr. Sharday pushing him down to his knees telling him how pathetic he was and how he could never live up to anything.

Peter told him he didn’t have the guts to do anything to even harm him. Niles didn’t agree, and pulled out a little pistol.
“What are you going to do with that Niles?”
“Oh what do you think, kill you of course.” A drip of sweat ran down Peters head.

“So you are going to kill me, but you know if you do, my daughter will be out to get you.”
“Well I’ll have the pleasure of her as well. Any last words?” Peter straightened his back and tried his best not to show any fear but it was too late. Niles pulled the trigger and the bullet flew out from the chamber, piercing the air, then into the head of Peter Sharday stopping life in a few fatal seconds.

“No!!!, I don’t believe you.” Jose released all her rage out on him telling how he was wrong. But the truth was that her dad had died by the hands of a made man. Jose reached back to her guns lining them up with his head. She released the silver devils out of their dark cave into the open. Niles pounced behind a wall. He talked about how she was just like her father, so small and worthless. But as he was he was loading his angel of death. Bang! The two now very apparent enemies were in a gun fight, with bullets blazing across the room pounding into pillars and walls.
“You can’t win Jose.”
They were emptying clips like there was no tomorrow. They both then came within one meter of each other pointing there weapons at each others heads.
“You’re empty.” Niles thought he’d got it but then she said the same. They looked at each others guns. Then at each other. There eyes glared hard. Jose then swung her leg at him as Niles threw a punch at her, but they both missed.
“Its like I said Jose you can’t win.”
They were both standing on a ledge several feet from the floor. If one of them fell the other would have the advantage, but then Jose jumped down running to the other side with Niles following her. She then rolled over grabbing a gun, and with one shot let a bullet fly to Niles. Niles looked down; he’d been shot in the leg. Blood was pouring from his leg quickly changing the colour of his clothes. Jose thought she was now going to get him back but then he said
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.”
“Oh really, And why’s that.”
As she said that men in suits came out from all corners pointing guns at Jose and Malcolm. She looked hard at Niles while she was taken away.

They were carried back down to the warehouse where they were tied up. Niles walked in and was trying to get Jose to get here to tell him what the place did and how to get it but shed just kept saying she didn’t know. Niles kept trying but in the end he just told her that maybe by the morning she will have changed her mind, he then walked off.
“So got any plans on how were getting out of here?” Malcolm said.
Jose looked at him and nodded. They were both tied but to separate chairs
So, she jumped up and down moving towards the boxes.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She said nothing and leaned next to the box and rubbed the rope on the side till it snapped. She smiled at him then freed him with a knife.
“Careful.” Malcolm wasn’t the one who wanted to be cut. As they run off Jose said to Malcolm that she said she had an idea of what to do.

When they got there it was very quiet, a bit too quiet. They quickly started to look round to see what to do. It wasn’t long before Malcolm found an eye shaped hole in the wall.
“Jose what’s this do?”
She looked at it and told Malcolm to give him the diamond. She put it in the hole and a bright beam of light shot out and hit a fallen pillar.
“I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.” Malcolm liked to point out the obvious. Jose ran up some stairs, looked at the pillar and drew her guns and blasted the pillar to pieces. The dust settled and the beam hit a mirror, reflecting into a very big blue eye. The eye light up and as it did the two stone doors opened and a bright white light appeared from the other side.
“And she closed the door and was never seen again.” Jose whispered to her self the legend of I.B.B or Island Big Blue. Jose moved into the light but as she did Malcolm shouted out, “NO! Wait let me go after all who will save the world next time?”
“You will.” she said smiling
Then she turned round, looked at the light and jumped through, and was never seen again.

Years later……… Legend says “from the white light she appeared and it was said she had the power like a god.”

THE END, or so legend says…

Charater Project

Just to contradict my last blog this one is all about a charter project, which is actually pretty fun. So development process was, go to pub, draw character, develop character, develop anatomy skills, make model. Well that’s it in a nut shell, here are some pictures of it all though.

So after a few little sketches I got an idea of what kind of character I wanted, it's the typical old guy drinking his pint in a bar, you could just imagine his whole back story as his sitting there, old people are so more interesting that younger people.


Drawing faces has never been a strong point of mine, which is why I’ve shied away from it, so when I came to draw the face for this character I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I started by drawing what i thought the face would look like, then looked at some Andrew Loomis books for how to correctly draw a face/head and discovered how wrong I was. so I gave it another go and got a better outcome, although it's not exactly how I envisioned it I’ve had a great learning outcome from this and have then took this a step further and make a 3d clay (sculpey really) model of him which was amazing fun, something I defiantly need to get more into.

Self Portriat

So it seems everyone wants to be a character artist in the games industry, i think i can understand why, there is a lot of scope with it and learning the human form is an on going process that's difficult but can also be very rewarding once learnt. So it makes sense to have a self portrait project in the course, if you go into an interview with this in your portfolio then they can clearly see if you model looks like you or not. I've made a start and it's more fun/interesting than i thought, it's hard work and I'm not looking forward to making my face, which is why i haven't started with that yet, but I'm hoping to get a decent end result.



As you can probable tell from the intro a character artist isn't something I'm thinking of going too far into, i do want basic understanding of it and the ability to make good looking models, but as of the moment i don't plan to make it my main focus. What i would really like to get into is environment design, which is something I've been thinking for a while now.
Here's an environment project we started earlier on, i haven't finished the textures yet, i need some decent bushes, grass, tree etc references, and that floor has been put down just to give an idea. But this project is the first really environment one i have done and I'm pretay happy with the outcome so far and looking forward to doing some others, maybe even do one for my self portrait when I've done that.

That 'WOW' Factor

So first the apologies that I haven't been posting on here lately, I've been wanting for a while now but because it's 'work' I've been putting too much pressure on it and too worried that what I write has to be A* standard work. So I've now just decided to start writing, so you may have bear with me.

Something I've been wanting to write about is this picture above, now first off I haven't done this, my brother recently moved into a new house, and as we were moving things in i noticed this picture on the wall, and at first glance just though that's not right. I said this to my family and at first they did not agree with me, but I kept looking at it trying to figure out why it wasn't right. There are a number of reasons, and all the mistakes have been made with the first lines that were put on the page as It's the perspective that's out. Through the first archway the horizon line is too high, and certain lines do not meet at a single point as they should. I've done a quick annotated diagram of a couple of things so it's clearer. What is good about this picture is it has been very well painted, and you can tell the painter had a good understanding of light and colour, and this often gives so much of a 'WOW' factor that most people don't realise the obvious mistake. which is something I don't do so much now, and I understand why Chris uses certain pictures in earlier lectures that make people go, wow that's took some skill, but even if they are brilliant at techniques in Photoshop, basic understanding is a necessity.

Black line - Horizon Line.
Red Lines - These lines should all meet up to craet the single point perspective.
Green Line - the roof line inside the room needs to be a lot lower, the lowest green line is where it should be about.

But what made me feel good about this was I suddenly realised that all the work from the first year was really paying off now, and my skills as an artist were becoming basic skills that I use on a daily basis. Now I'm not saying I'm done and all the images I do are perfect, but it's a great feeling knowing that the course is really paying off and I'm gaining all this knowledge.

I can say that this term I have not been working to the standard or amount I really should be, but since this I've felt more motivation to get on with work, and an important lesson I learnt from last year was not to just do the work and project for the sake of doing it and getting this grade, but to do work that will help you, teach you, and your able to learn from.

Results

So...... it seems like yesterday was the day we got our results, and i PASSED!!! Woooooooooo i did it, i can now happily talk about the second year now without living in fear!

I would like to post up my exact results but as of yet I'm not too sure what all the numbers means, I'm sure they'll get figured out soon enough, but the important thing is I've passed which is awesome, so guess I'll have more things in here over the year come.

I Haven't Just Been Sitting All Day

Well not much has been going on here for while, but I've been busy, honest. I thought I'd just post a couple of things I've been working on to show i haven't just been sitting all day, no seriously i haven't...

So the hospital project we were given is coming to a close now, and about time too has been going on for a fair while now. The guy who'd gave it us seem pretty impressed by what I'd done, well after all he did pay me so must be something. And I'm happy with what I've made myself, especially as this was the first really go I'd had at structures/levels. due to the size of what was being made i feel not much detail in specific area's were achieved, just a fairly generic plan (although was highly complected to make some of those rooms), but i do plan to make the interior of my own house, where I'll be able to make it look more 'real world' just by adding certain details such as scratches and chips in paint, worn away wood and the like.







Was also working on a project for a mini comp on game artisans, was task to make a gateway to the afterlife, of which i came up with a couple of idea's but this one seemed slightly simpler to make. My idea was/is a room, where four light beams would enter through the ceiling into the pedestal in the center (light beam possible coming from distant obelisks, fairly metroid based). Then when you placed your hands onto the smaller pedestal you would be sent to the afterlife. Not sure if I'll get round to finishing this, can always come back to it another day.


Since the course stopped i haven't really done much drawing/digital paints, and i need to start practicing again, this is one i attempted the other day, didn't turn out brilliant but hoping to get into the swing of things again.

This one below is for the 2d mini comp on game artisans, ideas a tree house and I've gone for the town in the tree tops, i want to get far in this, hopefully finished, might end up changing whats in the scene or change the view all together, should be fun though.

Week Twenty-Four - Been A Blast

So that’s it, first year done with, moving onto the second year soon, oh how scary this is all becoming! I am really looking forward to the second year, this past year has been a blast, I’ve learnt so many things, and not just technical skills, but also mentally such as how to learn and approach things, understanding theory’s and then actually putting them into practice, it’s all been so valuable and I’m extremely happy I chose this course, as I know there are many course out there that don’t allow you to grow and prosper, so for this I have the teachers to thank, and also everyone else on the course as I’ve found you learn a lot from just being in the labs and talking to people.

I think next year I’m actually looking more forward to the 2D visual side of the course, which is not what I thought when I started the course, in fact before I started I didn’t think there’d be much drawing involved and we’d be sitting in front of a screen all day (although I do do that a lot). Hopefully there will be more outings as they always seem to end up with the best results, as well as being a lot more fun. I know it’s difficult with all health and safety form the uni heads, but if we get to go out further than just Leicester that would be great and very beneficial so I think these are things that should be pushed.

There was a mention of maybe looking at more film side, as the two are very closely linked yet. And from the start of the year I have said I’d love to get into the film side at some point. Im not completely sure at the moment now but that’s mainly because I don’t know much about the film industry, and I know the modelling is different, so if that’s something we could get a chance to look at I’d love that.

I plan to keep my self busy over the summer with modelling, got a few little projects in mind, but I also need to remember to keep drawing so I don’t loose what I’ve learnt this year, as I know next year it’s going to be straight back into it and having to step up a gear, still should be good though!

Week Twenty-three - The Land Of Level Design

So no specified task for this week then, is this a trap maybe to see who does work even when not told, or did Mr P really have so much fun at GDC he didn’t write a task, who knows, but I’ll talk about something or other I suppose.

Well the one thing on my mind at the moment is the hospital project. Alex Jevremovic has given us (the first years) the task of creating the inertia of Coventry hospital, and oh how fun it has been. As I said in my previous post I’d like to start to explore the land of level design, so when this came up it seemed like an opportunity just waiting, and so I volunteered myself to help create the actually environment of the hospital. At first I though it couldn’t really be that difficult, few walls here and a floor to run along, and in essence that’s what it should have been, but obviously this is the first time any of use had attempted something like this, talk about being thrown in the deep end.

So I’ve sort of ended up becoming in charge of the structure (we all hate it when people call us leaders now, ahh the pressure!) but this as I said is something I want to do so I don’t mind really. The original plan was to make the entire inside of the hospital, but due to far few less numbers than we had started with, Alex has said he doesn’t mind just the second floor being done, so that’s a relief.

It’s coming along nicely now, not actually too much more to do on it, and most the assets are completed I believe, and so now I can’t wait to see it all combined into one scene, it should look good and be something we can be proud of, not to mention the shiny penny at the end.

Overall veiw of structure!

A look down one of many corridors!

A corridor done by the man called Si, complete with windows!

Week Twenty-two - Out Of Sync

This weeks task was suppose to be about something interesting at GDC, but not being completely up to date on my blog I’ve kind of missed it. I had a quick look back at what had happened, not a lot caught my eye and there’s a fair bit of ‘old’ news now. However in a few weeks time E3 will be on again.

E3 use to be the big gaming event of the year where thousands attended to see all of the gaming companies latest’s toys. But in the past year or so E3 has been toned down, only four or five thousand will be attending, who will be invited people only, and it’s not the big conference of the year. But there still should be some exciting things going on.

Nintendo's Booth

I always wanted to go to E3, not just to play the latest games, but see what was going on, it always looked like such a great place to be, an environment where everyone was from the same culture bringing a great atmosphere to the place. This is something that will be harder to attend now as it is invite only, but still would be very cool to go.

E for All is suppose to be the ‘replacement’ for E3, being a much more consumer driven event, with companies attending from a wider range, although still situated around gaming. This event is open to anyone who applies, but being in LA it isn’t the easiest place to get to, but still would be great to go to.

I feel like I should write about something that’s going on then. From what I hear the big N are planning on making some sort of announcement, now when these rumours occur it’s always a big let down to what it actually is. A lot of people think there’s going to be a new DS design, and apparently the current Wii bundle is set to change. A bundle though could be anything from the Wii coming with a different or extra game, maybe another remote or something, it indeed could possible a Wii with more space and or capabilities. Either way it’s reminded me of something I was thinking about the other day, how out of sync this generation is. The PS3 has only recently come out, compared to the xbox 360 which came out a long time ago, and then the Wii somewhere in the middle. So I’m slightly confused to how the next generation is going to work. I know it’s a bit earlier to be talking about that at the moment, but the PS3 should have a fair bit of life in it, where as Microsoft will want to get out another consol much sooner. And then Nintendo could make the Wii last a long time, and if the past is anything to go by the next consol will be an upgraded version, so no idea on the time scales of them. Maybe they don’t need to be in sync now, maybe the next few generations will be a lot different to the standard format, but ultimately competition drives this industry, so there has to be some sort of marker.

Week Twenty-one - Who Recons They Can Do It All

I’ve mentioned odd things about this topic in past blogs, especially week nineteen, but that does not mean that it’s done and dusted. In fact that’s mainly what most people do, something new put against something existing, and then that’s it. Whereas there should be an on going learning process of continual evaluation and critique, where you have self realization of how good your work is. This is possible one of the most important things I’ve learnt this year, how to learn. Understanding things like this will make you brain much more ‘fit’ and I know it’s a clesha but the brain is a muscle too and must be exercised.

Chris's infamous picture for lectures!

Pictures like this at the start of the year I automatically just said wow that’s amazing how the hell can you do that. And I’m not saying it’s not damn good, it’s got brilliant skills demostrated but it's not a good understanding of light and colour theory, so I’ve learnt to be more evaluative and have realization of the work in front of me. Which has also led to me describing what’s wrong with all pictures I see now, which comes off as I don’t like them, I do, I just now have found picking out bad points a good learning activity for my self. Also when people say these things about my work I actually listen now and take on board what is said. The best example of this was when I was doing a digital painting in the lab and couldn’t figure out how get the colour right. After some frustrating grunts Dell and Mike gave me some very useful tips and guidance, which I listened to and then noticed a significant improvement in my work.

Two of my later photoshop paintings!

It’s obvious now that with the vast amount of work that goes into games, more and more specialized areas are needed, and after a lecture the other day they made a point that it’s much easier to employ some one who knows what they want to do, that someone who recons they can do it all, because no one could make something as good as someone who is a specialist in the area and dedicated there learning to it. So it was said try and figure out what you want to do early on.

Obviously it’s nice to try everything, and highly encourage at the start to figure this out (start could be any length of time from first week of uni to last week of uni) but the sooner you know the better because you can research and practice in the area you want. Before I came to this course I had the idea in my head that I wanted to be a level designer/environmental artist, and throughout the first year you don’t really model much ‘levels’ so I haven’t nurtured this too well. One thing you do do is environment drawing, which I wasn’t too good at but then realized if I want to be good at this I need to draw it first, something that can’t be stressed enough, and if you can’t draw it you will not make a good model of it.

So now the course is officially finished I can try to venture into this world of level making, and I did, I started small and started to make my flat, and I got so far and then we got this hospital project. But of course we need to make the entire inertia of Coventry hospital, so I jumped straight in to the deep and I have been trying to make rooms and the layout for the hospital, but obviously this is a huge job so there are several of us working on it. I also over the summer plan to make my house at home, inside and out, which should keep me busy for a fair while I think.

Week Twenty - Creative Side Of The Brain

Okay so I did the typical blog task thing of reading the task and then completely over thinking about it and never actually writing anything down, I thought I’d got out of that habit but it appears this weeks task has set some fear into me.

The reason for this is that this task is about creativity, a subject of which we have discussed all year and is pretty significant, and so I instantly put great pressure upon this task, resulting in me not actually doing it…

So anyway creativity, the thing that for a long time has not been deemed any use in profession. When I say this I mainly refer to education, and how from year 1 upwards it’s pushed against the back wall having to try and fight its way to become as acceptable as science or English. Now there is a noticeable reason of why this has happened, how on earth do you measure creativity, because of course in reference to arts, what one person like’s another hates.

But creativity is something that must be nurtured and allowed to be explored. Earlier in the year we went to a lecture in Leicester about creativity, and I know it may be a cliché to say but, it was one of the most uncreative lectures ever, people were actually falling asleep, if not watching the world pass by the window, and the people who spoke were rather boring to listen to, and were approaching the subject way too much like a scientist. Anyway there was one thing I did take away from that, which is there were different kinds of creativity, of which I can’t remember the other millions types, but two stood out to me, personal creativity, and new creativity. Personal creativity is when you first create something new and exiting for your self, doesn’t matter how many times it has been done before, this is the first time you’ve discovered it and you're learning from it. And the other was something that is a bit rarer and is when someone is so creative they break all the barriers and records with something they have created, of which doesn’t happen all that often. But it made me think, you need to have all this little self creative experience so that you can improve the creative side of the brain and hopefully end up with new creativity.

Talking about sides of the brain is something I love talking about, as it usually ends up with my mind just feeling like it’s about to explode, because there really is a stack loads we have absolutely no idea about. Its great talking to other people about this as well because everyone has different takes on it and bits of interesting information, but anyway like I say, brain exploding, not knowing.

So back to creativity, there was a great little line in the task that I thought was worth mentioning 'Creativity without craft is like fuel without an engine - it burns wildly but accomplishes little...’. And this can be very frustrating to some people because there’s nothing like being able to think up new awesome ideas but not being able to put them across. And this links back to the whole education not taking enough interest, which as I say is changing now for the better. But I love the course I’m on now because I’m starting to learn some really great skills and put them to good use, but also learning a real mind set that’s allows me to approach problems and difficulties in a better way, and unleash some work I previously could not have though being possible.

Week Nineteen - Any Monkey Could Teach Them Selves

Okay firstly is that going to university should not be about just learning new ‘skills’ so you can perform a new task, any monkey could essentially do that. Throughout uni you should change as person (for the better hopefully) and have a new perspective, one of the things I remember Mike saying in the first week is “if you go to university and come out the end unchanged, to me that’s a waste of time”. So the course your on should not be just churning out tools for trades, of which I believe our course is very far from it.

As I’ve come to realise education is pretty messed up, maybe this is just an idea that’s been implanted in my head by Mike and Chris, as they spend half their time telling us this, but I do think they tell the truth. At GCSE’s and A-Levels, once I had figured out okay to get the grade all I need to do is check these boxes and I’m done. But what a really bad way to do something, by doing this you learn almost nothing. Since coming to uni I’ve tried to stop doing work just for the sake of doing work, and once you realise this you start actually wanting to do the work, getting more out of it, and more often than not produce something better. On this course just in the first year I’ve learnt stack loads, both just skills and technical stuff, but also more importantly I think I’ve learnt how to learn and approach problems.

So anyway back on track, this should be the reason that game companies (or any business for that matter) want uni grad’s, because as well as having the knowledge and skills to make work, they should also have the mind set and understanding to be able to work in the environment, and analyse problems better. Kind of hard to explain this, basically uni should give experiences and brain power to apply you skills to make awesome work, something I fear a lot of course really do not do. As has been said before, any monkey could teach them selves 3DS Max, but unless firstly they have those fundamental drawing skills, being able to see properly and actually recreate from 3d, to 2d, back into 3d, unless you have that know how and understanding, then that, as I said before, would be a waste of your uni life. (by this I don’t just mean the drawing skills as well, I mean all the way of thinking brain capacity stuff).

Right so kind of all messed up there, it makes sense in my head, I don’t think I’ve really explained what I wanted very well, couldn’t think of the right words, I might try and make it more coherent in one of the later tasks, but for now that’s what your getting. And I’ve just gone back and read the task title ‘Life Changing’. So basically that’s it, uni shouldn’t just teach you tools, it should be life changing, done and done.

The Boost Buttton!

Those into Formula 1 will know that almost every year the rules are changed, this is usually to increase excitement in the races. For next years the aerodynamics are changing and so are the tyres, which are all arrantly to make overtaking more possible in the races. But the change that made me laugh was the introduction of ‘The Boost Button’.

So as if you though F1 wasn’t exciting enough for a game, well I would imagine this is going to put some smiles on a few faces. Apparently it’s an energy conservation device, that over the period of approximately 1 lap will store up energy created from braking, and then when the driver desires can press ‘The Boost Button’ and get an extra 80 horse power for a few seconds. As awesome as it sounds I cant help but wonder what person sat down and decided, you know what F1 needs, some speed boost, obviously thought up after watching some nos fuelled fast and furious racing.

I can’t actually wait for this, but with these changes every year what on earth will F1 be like in 5 or 10 years time, I’m thinking F-Zero will come soon…

http://www.seesystems.com/f1/ - a cool site of concepts of futuristic F1 designs.

New Wii Engine

It’s nothing new that often 3^rd party developers don’t put a great amount of effort into some for their games, not pushing the limits of what a consol can do. So when a small time developer creates an entire new games engine, which also works both well and has real effort put into, it certainly is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

This new engine is for the Wii, and has been created by a company called ‘High Voltage Software’ who in the past have made games such as Lego racers and family guy, so from the track record you wouldn’t really expect anything amazing from these guys, and yet they’ve seen the Wii and pushed it’s capabilities further with a rather ingenious design.

This new engine they have designed has been specifically design for the Wii to make the most of it. It will be able to display graphics that no other games on the Wii can do, making use advanced detailed bump and secular maps and also refraction and reflection maps, better LOD’s along with all real time rendering and lighting. There is a claim they want it to stand up to graphics of the 360, which even as it is a highly claim to make, shows there determination and passion to push the Wii, and I believe this is only the first of the push, in time as with all consoles, the power gets pushed further along the lifeline.

The game that they are creating, called The Conduit, useing this engine also looks to be shaping up very good, a first person shooter where aliens have invaded earth, in which you must haul round big guns to blow them the hell away, sounds good to me anyway.

Now the game their making may possible not be the best which would be a real shame because this game is going to be the marketing point for the engine, hopefully we will see a fully immersive single player story along with a multi player mode, and I wouldn’t think it is going to have online, but I suppose that’s always a plus. So I really hope this engine will be successful and in the future more games developers utilize this to make their games, this could very well be the start of the second generation of Wii games.

http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=11725

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/867/867498p2.html - a link to IGN, where there a screenshots and a tech demo of the new engine

http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20368 – a link to a forum where there are more screenshots and technical information. (Please keep in not that this game is still in the making stages, and so is not finished and may have missing textures and the like.)

Week Eighteen - Sounds Such As Mario’s Jump

If you spend a day in our lab, every time a phone goes off more than likely you’ll hear a sound from either metal gear or final fantasy, or some other game noise, so I think this already proves sound in games is highly important. But this is one kind of game sound and I think there are two categories, sounds such as Mario’s jump or a coin collected, and then the ambient soundtracks, giving the atmosphere of a scene.

Going back to earlier games the sounds were not interested in ‘real’ sounds as such, but rather those 8 bit sounds we all love, and every time I hear one of those little noise clips it brings back a feeling of nostalgia. Now these sounds are still created from time to time, but with people obsessed with realism in games, real sounds are needed. If you take Call Of Duty 4 for example, the sounds of the guns, breathing, and footsteps, all are made to be as real as possible, the sounds of real battle fields just gives that bit more illusion your actually there.

There’s then the ambient sounds, which are subtly in the background increasing then tension, or making a fast paced chase even more heart racing, and it’s good composers who create these atmospheres. This is why there are now dedicated people who make sounds for games, and often film sound specialists make sounds for game as well. And this can be anything from a huge orchestral piece, to recording the sound of footsteps.

This is one reason why I like my big epic games, when your playing though and an epic piece of music comes on it just makes the whole atmosphere much more impressive.

Something that’s becoming more popular as well is playing your own music in game, which is easier now with consoles which have hard drives (one day for the Wii hopefully). But I played Excite Truck, and at first thought it was good, then put my own play list on, which took a while to make as I had to get those just damn good driving songs, and it made the game so much better.

So sound is highly important in games for creating mood/atmosphere, illusions of what’s going on, and this is all down to it being one of your sense, of which at the moment the only other sense is vision, so maybe one day we will have other sense’s addressed.

Now normally I’d put a few pictures in, but as this is about sound I thought ill include some video clips with some sound, enjoy!

Classic Game Themes Orchestrated!

The Legend Of Zelda!

Mario Theme Tune On Guitar! (There are loads of others as well)

Week Seventeen - The Void

Okay I’m slightly concerned, this task is about game engines, and as said in the brief we don’t do any programming, and as far as I’m concerned I’m don’t plan to, so when you ask me some question with some new and odd words my mind just does not accept them, so if I am to find out about this it could potentially end up very bad. However I do believe the more knowledge we have the more we will understand on how to make good Game Art.

Now I have some knowledge on game engines, such as I know they are there, and in the lab we have to unreal engine, and I know of other engines but know there is vast amount, and when making a game the right engine needs to be pick at the start. I have the euphoria engine on my pc and this engine seems to be incredible, the things it can create, they way the program just tells the “person” to stand straight, then if a force is introduced it tries it’s best to stay upright, and as far as I found and read it’s boarding on human like, I smell Skynet.

As I said there were some new words in this blog task, so I went out and found what they meant, it’s all about the void, so here’s a snippet of what the words meant if your interested, more so I can refresh my own mind in future without filtering through Google.

Additive Environments

In an additive environment, the beginning consists of emptiness - usually called the void. The void is endless and empty. When the designer creates something, for example a room, he creates a space within the void by sealing it off - the easiest way to do this is to simply create a hollow cube. Something like a vast landscape with a beautiful sky is created by first designing the terrain, buildings, trees et cetera, and then surrounding it all with a "skybox", a large hollow box, the insides of which show the sky. This box is necessary to keep the void out, since the world and the void must always be kept separate. A hole in the world is called a "leak", since the void is "leaking" in.

Some popular 3D engines using additive environments:
The Quake engines (Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena)
The MaxFX engine (Max Payne)
The Half-Life engine (Half-Life)
LithTech (Aliens vs. Predator)

Subtractive environments

As is probably obvious, a subtractive environment is the opposite of an additive environment. In a subtractive environment, there is no void. Before there is a world, there is only an infinite solid. To create a world, designers must subtract bits from this infinite solid, creating hollow spaces for the user (player) to exist in. This eliminates the possibility of leaks, but many designers still favour the additive environment because it is easier to manipulate. In fact, a known way of working around the subtractive style editing is by first subtracting a huge cube, creating a void (of sorts) in the middle of the infinite solid - and then working additively in the middle of this (fake) void, expanding it as necessary.

Obviously game engines are reused for a number of different games, and mostly it’s the basic engines that are user friendly and can also be adapted. When the engine is adapted it called middleware, a separate program often made by the games developer when making a new games, that can make an engine do what they want it to do, and also will separate that game from a different game running the same engine.

Right as may seem fairly obvious I have little knowledge of this subject, and I’ve tried to look into it but my minds just getting fragmented pieces of knowledge, so I think this is something I’m going to have to take time to understand, especially for next year as we will be implementing our models into the unreal engine, and from what I’ve heard this just fun, fun…fun….

Week Sixteen - The Meaning Of The Word Geek

Well this task has me slightly perplexed, gaming cultures, what is it, who’s involved in it, how does it affect life of those directly involved and those not in the know. Well I suppose these tasks are to enlighten us in these areas so research away.

…

Okay that didn’t go all that well, I’m still not all that sure I understand just what I’m suppose to be finding, however a thought has been occurring. In the task it say’s about people who have visited LAN parties, now I can say I haven’t, but is this a good thing or not. I can defiantly say there are two answers, yes, and no. now hold on I haven’t just contradicted myself because the answer will depend entirely upon who you ask the question. If you asked someone who had been to a LAN party before and enjoyed it, they would think how can you have never gone to one you crazy person, however if you were to ask it to someone not much of a gamer, not into the gaming culture, they would say no, they would ridicule you for how sad you are and what a ‘geek’ you would be. Now the reason I’ve put geek in inverted commas because it depends on your definition of geek. In common culture the word is immediately looked down upon, and seen as an insulting word, but I beg to differ. If for just a second you forgot what the word means and the stereotypical value it has, and imagine this word just means belong, it means that you belong to certain culture, and certain involvement in something that you truly enjoy and wish to be a part of. If this is the meaning of the word geek then everyone is a geek to there own interests, you can call a gamer a geek for playing games, and at the same time you could call a sign maker a geek, I’m sure if you were with a sign maker and they suddenly said ooo that sign looks like it’s been done very well, or that’s a horrible effort, I’m sure you would think how sad to notice that. I hope this makes sense and portrays what I’m trying to say, and it is something I think is actually becoming widely acknowledged.

Now alas, I’ve just typed that out and understand now what gaming culture it is, it’s the ‘geeks’ who are a part of it, the people that attend these LAN parties, launch nights, conferences etc, and as the gaming industry is exponentially increasing so is the culture it has behind it, and if not already, gaming culture is going to play a large role in world we live in, and the people who call the people involved geeks in the insulting sense are going to have a real shock when they realise just how many people they are insulting.

Week Fifteen - Some Resemblance To A Small Army

Okay first things first, I’m noticing that I’m writing about pretty much the same things in most of my blogs, which is for me becoming increasingly boring and I’m sure it’s becoming more increasingly boring to read. And although I’m trying to stop it, every time I read a new task I get the same flood of thoughts, partly I think it’s because I feely strongly about these points but non the less I apologise and will try find out some more interesting issues to write about. There we go, no on to the task in hand.

Right so just to be a hypocrite I’m going to start with something I’ve wrote in a lot of blogs, which is games cost too damn much to make these days and because of this only the big guns can make the top end games, leaving the small soldiers with less and less hope. In the future I hope this changes as it’s always the little people with the best idea’s, I stress that point idea. So why the change.

Well long have the days gone where 2 or 3 friends can get together and make a game to appeal to the masses, now you need a shed load of money, and good marketing point, more money, and some resemblance to a small army behind you. Let me start with the army.

I’ve read around and it seems if you break a games development company into pieces you end up with;

Game Designers,
Game Artists,
Game Programmers,
Sound Designers,
Testers,
and Producers.

Now to me that’s a lot of roles, but each of these can be broke down into even smaller roles,

directors;
assistant directors,
lead [e.g. artists],
specialists,
and work monkeys as Chris might say.

So that’s a lot of people that end up working in games now, most of which are specialist who have studies or developed to that section of work.

For example just doing Game Art is a big area, you could end up a concept artist, you could be modelling;
characters,
levels/landscapes,
vehicles, general assets,
and even be just a modeller or texture artist, possible just in those areas.

It obviously depends on the size of the of the company to how many a development team has, but still it’s getting more and more the way that specialist are required, and even to cut down time/costs companies out source some of the work they get.

Now the games industry in growing at the moment at a speedy rate to a point that by the time I graduate this break down of jobs may be obsolete, although I don’t think it can break down into smaller roles really, just more and more jobs in one company, which also means that companies don’t really want the average person to work on their games, they want the best of the best, and they can easily do that because compared to the amount of jobs available to the amount of people that want jobs that is an obvious difference. Which is really the driving force to make your self better and better so you can break into the world that everyone hates and is corrupt, but all at the same time they all love and enjoy, ohh the scrambling of the brain.

http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/672/672661p2.html - a link to an article on IGN about the roles in games companies, I particularly liked the part about testers as I knew it was an important role, but it made me realise how much has to actually go into that, without them games would be seriously messed up.

Week Eleven - Wheel Spin, Slide, And Usually Crash In A Spectacular Way

“Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems”

That line made me laugh, it’s from the wiki page, and basically is saying gameplay is absolutely everything in the game, which I guess is true, so now I’m meant to write a blog about it, hmm this could be head scratcher.

Okay normally the best way to describe a word/phrase is to switch it round, so…play game, yeah playing games, that’s basically what gameplay is, when you play the games, as tempting as it is to leave this post at that, I think I better expand slightly.

I’m going to start with the Wii, and by which I mean how we interact with games. This is something that has changed for this generation of gaming, how we interact with the games. Forgetting graphics and all that for the moment, how you interact with a game is essentially one the fundamentals, even when games started, the controller has been a key part (of which I managed to write a whole post on), and with this new invention of motion sensors gives a new dynamic to games. And something I think most people forget when trying to categories these words, is the fun in the game, that’s what they were essentially made for, entertainment, to take a break and just enjoy yourself, and as far as I can tell the Wii does this brilliantly.

I feel now as if I could write a post on how games are meant to be fun, and I might one day… but for the moment I’m just going say games are meant to be fun, just good damn that you enjoy. Okay now that’s done next point.

Now I know gaming mechanics is different to gameplay, well I think anyway, but the games engines affects the gameplay. To but it black and white, a racing game needs good technology so that it feels like a your driving a car, feel the car over-steer, wheel spin, slide, and usually crash in a spectacular way, and a first person shooter needs you to feel like you are shooting a gun and moving around a half blown up building, and a simulation game should simulate something (playing a guitar).

I think when the term gameplay is used, imminently people think of computer/video games, but it can easily be applied to any type of game, the gameplay of a board game, games such as snooker and darts, even at a stretch to Olympic Games.

Okay now my brains starting to hurt because gameplay is a truly huge word and I think I’ll finish this post with how I started it, but this time I hope it has more meaning.

“Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems”