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.