Real Life

Just fancy sharing a few thoughts I've got going on, works all in for next week and it's starting to take it's tole so need some venting.

First off just wanted to comment on the dominance war, and i must stress these are my personal opinions and i think none less of people who do take part. But i was reading through the brief for this years and realised that it just wasn't exciting me at all. There's a new 'type' for this years war which is the demons, and while i was reading about it, not at one point did i think ahhh cool i need to enter this, i think the closest i got to this feeling was in the mechanical section where it was talking about vehicles. And the reason for this is fantasy and making up these 'creatures' just doesn't appeal, I'm much more happy and driven to do realistic things. Now because I've said that I'm not cutting it out completely, i enjoy the concepts that people can come up with, but still i think the best things are ideas/designs that are closely related with realism, or at least had a solid starting point a plenty of research done.

Anyway just to flow on from that, life drawing is something I've got more excited about this term, i think it's because I'm now starting to really 'get' it more and enjoy trying out different techniques, styles, angles and whatever. slightly disappointed that as soon as i was realising this we don't have any now, might have to look into doing some over the summer if i can. So here's a few from this term I'd like to share.

These were done using oil pastels which i hadn't really used before so i was slightly apprehensive, but once Chris gave me a couple of pointers i had so much fun using them, and learnt more than i did if I'd spent the whole session using just a pencil, glad i used them!

Again following on from my little rant, me and Tim started going out and about in Leicester to do some watercolour paintings, which has just been so much fun, going out and actually doing something is a far better way to learn, and as i said fun! i would seriously recommend it, and even if you go and you end up with a piece your not too happy with it doesn't really matter, i guarantee you'll have had fun doing it and learnt something. I'm planning on regularly going to better improve my skills and so I'm actually seeing real life. That's one thing i will not like about an office job, sitting in front of a screen all day, I'd just have to get out to do real things and physically interacting. So here's a few of the paintings I've done so far.

This was the first one i did, was at abbey
park, was pretty happy with it as well.

Also at Abbey Park, found the old ruins of the Abbey which
was cool, this is a view from the ruins looking
at that building which sells ice cream!

This time we decided to go in the complete opposite direction, found some country lanes and cool stuff, nice bit where the river came through an old bridge, unfortunately it then poured down with rain so couldn't actually do the painting while we were there, so did one at home, which was just not as fun as being there.

Unreal Engine

So you say Unreal Engine to someone in the games industry and it's a certainty that they'll have a few wars stories to tell, and this term I’ve had the 'pleasure' of getting acquainted with this destroyer of minds.

Well to be honest I don’t think it's as bad as all the talk, like any program really it has it's moments, and yes I’ve lost my temper with it once or twice...maybe thrice, but it has some really nice effects, and gives a more accurate display of models than max does.

At this week in GDC they've been showing of some of the new engines toys and gadgets, and they do look really really nice, the only thing I’d be worried about is it might be making it too easy for people to do. What I mean by this is people who use it may do things not really understanding what’s going on, they'll end up with something pretty, but unless you understand you'll never get that step further. That applies to a lot of things in general, if someone tells me do this this and this to make this I’m always wanting to know why, and what happens if you do this instead of this, this is the only way you'll truly learn. Anyway back to the point I was getting to, one of the new things was a realistic bounce light system, now yes this will give great feel and life to levels, but unless you understand bounce light you'll never get that step further.



This is a nice shot where the light hitting the red drapes bleeds onto the surrounding objects, in the current engine if you wanted that effect you'd have to figure it out for yourself, and these are things you only learn from seeing it in real life and trying to recreate it yourself, that’s the point I’m trying to make, you only learn something if you actually try and do it your self, not just reading about, it's why practical sessions are quite often the most effective.

Anyway talking about unreal, I’m almost finished in putting my environment from last term into the engine. I wanted to improve upon it, although I did like it I always felt it was lacking slightly, so I’ve tried to create more of a mood by making it night time, putting in some realistic lights, and just all round trying to make it better. Just needs going over with a fine comb now, enjoy!

Frame Of Mind

So it may seem like I’m just on here now for sake of being on here, and possible I am a part, but that does not mean this isn’t going to benefit me. I think one of the best things I’ve learnt and got into the habit of doing this term is doing things because I want to do them, and not just for the sake of a grade. Now that may seem like a contradiction as I just said I'm writing in here for the sake of it, but sometimes you need a little push in the right direction. I did often enjoy doing blog posts, it's a good way of getting the thoughts down that are all swirling around in your head.

So yeah I haven’t wrote on here much this term, but now I feels as if I’ve got a lot to write, I suppose I’m going to treat these next two weeks almost like a test of what I’ve learnt, and they will include a sum up thoughts of the course thus far.

I did actually want to write in here a few days ago but I thought I’d wait till the assessment and see what feedback I got from the tutors. Now the marks I got weren’t brilliant, but for some reason this really didn’t phase me, if anything it's just made me want to do more, and not just to get the top mark (although that is always nice) but because Heather Chris and Mike gave me some really positive feedback that I can build upon and take further. Cheers.

I can really say even know the course is finishing soon I’m so looking forward to carrying on doing work, I’ll still be going to Abbey park (or even other places) to do watercolours (or even other techniques) every week, and just drawing in spare time that I have. Because this is what I love doing.

One of the points last term I had was when you have to do something for work, even if it's something you enjoy, it ends up not being enjoyable, and not getting done because you feel as if you have to do it for this tick box and that merit point, as soon as you get out of this everything because much more enjoyable and objectives become more achievable.

I think I may not have being blogging this term because I felt it was some thing the uni wanted (and that’s uni not the course), and I felt I’d been talking to the tutors and involved in the course happenings, but obviously this needs documenting, so this I me documenting, and I plan to do much more of these over time, not for the uni's sake, but for mine, because as I’m typing this I’m feeling much better about it all, I think I did actually say in one of my first blogs this is helping sort that swirl of thoughts in my head, expect some more not so random dribbling, because I’m back baby!