christmas holidays

On to christmas. Over christmas i will complete the following tasks:
Finish my undamaged vehicle project-sketches, interior, renders
Finish my damaged vehicle project-sketches, interior, renders (for blitz open day standard)
finish outso project, character
send blitz renders of damaged car.
finish sketches for rooftop projects

Put everything onto a disk

Well first of all id like to thank chris and mike for opening the rooms two days after i should have gone home for christmas for me as these two days made a whole lot of difference in my rooftops project.
I have spent the past two weeks fretting over this project as yet again i was having unreal problems (the lighting wasnt building) and until monday this week i had woried that it would never be finished, ansd after weeks of helping me mark just happened to utter the phrase "have you moved computors" at which point i discovered that it was not my fault but the computor i had been on.
This has taught me a valuable lesson dont trust the computors at uni, and before you start deleting things move.

Panorama WTF

I have just sat and watched panorama 'addicted to games' and im sorry but im furious between parents being interviewed claiming they are afraid for their children's health and the patronising presenter there was little to redeem this clearly biased programme.
One teenager interviewed claimed that he had lost his university place because of games and another said that world of war craft was terrible and he wouldn't inflict it on anyone else (he said this while playing). And far from looking at the possibility that maybe it was their own fault that they were 'addicted' to these games panorama went to Blizzard games with the air of someone who was expecting an apology for these “poor young men”.

I would also like to point out that they lost their university places because they haven't heard of something called prioritising. I mean personally I would like nothing to be playing games right now but I cant because I have work to do and because my parents instilled me with backbone so the next time these parents are crying that their kids wont put their 360s away maybe they should take a look at themselves instead of laying the blame at everyone else's door.

rooftop project

Well this project has been one of the glitchiest projects ive had in a while. To complete it has been a constant battle against unreal. However after it all its been worth it.

Due to the fact that unreal doesnt work on my home computor ive had the opportunity to time manage due to the teaching styles of the third year.

Because we are now pretty much left to our own devices and we were given two projects to work on at the same time i could do unreal work at uni and either do the assets and tweeking of textures at home, and when the rooftop got boring and i needed a break i could then move onto the vehicle project which was helpful.

These are some in game shots of my rooftop project:

Its only 4 weeks into the third year and already im suffering from emotional distress. This was mainly caused be my own lack of beleif in myself. However thanks to my chat with chris and heather i am now back on track. This leaves me to re concentrate on the rooftops project, which considering how mundane the project is (with all the gray) im actually enjoying the challenge of creating a full level indipendantly as the only other level experience we have was in the group project and that was part of a team.

Im also enjoying all the new stuff im learning, mainly in unreal, and seeing a level ive created taking shape.

Well weve not been back for long and already the pressures on. The thoughts of getting a job getting better at not only 3d but drawing as well. The thought of having to plan a final project now feels weird and the thought that this project will be the main part of my portfolio, and the pressure to pick the right subject and something that wont bore me is something that is getting to me as everyone else seems pretty sure what subject theyre going to do, and where theyre going to be next year.



Well I have a few ideas for my final major project my first one would be a character/environment project based around a book, the book i would use is one ive enjoyed for years since i was about 14 i would use one of the books from the vampire diaries series but i would make sure i didnt use a part which was particularly gothic because as chris pointed out i dont want to be labeled.



My second idea would be an environment project. There is an area in ashby of an overly demolished house in the middle of a small forest



And my third idea is the house that chris found in the middle of a field, the only problem with this is i dont know where this house is. and even after extensive searches on google earth i still cant locate it.

so my FMP is between the first two ideas the book and the environment

over the summer

Well over the summer ive done quite alot of work it was nice working to my own projects but it did get quite boring after a while and i found myself sitting waiting for the holidays to end.

The work that i did ove rthe summer i tried to vary the range of objects i modelled and drawings i created as iv decided to extend over what i usually do.

here are some examples of the work i created

This was a flower from my mothers front garden i chose to draw it digitally because i felt that the vivid colours would only be fully apreciated in a digital image

I have uploaded more but blogger wont let me

gWell recently it actually dawned on me that iv' e continued drawing painting and modelling but I should also carry on writing the blogs.
However at the moment its probably clear nothing has been posted on facebook model wise this is because I'm apparently too close to my work, I'm actually afraid that the criticisms might upset me which is really weak but this is different to the set work I can put that up without fail but as soon as iv' e thought of something myself il just wait to hand it straight to heather and hope for the best, which is what I did for the last term I must have made at least seven 3d models yet put none of them on facebook, so if I make it into the third year which I hope I will ill try to work on my confidence and try to understand that not everyone will like my stuff or my styles but I should at least have the confidence to show my work without being afraid of the criticisms.

ps these blogs might be erratic in their uploading thats because the interent is a rare and expensive thing for me and il write the entries and store them up for when I get the internet.

end of the group projects

Well i don't think that in my design document i covered exactly what my role was in the group projects so I'm going to start by explaining that. At first i was just modelling and texturing. I modelled the following objects:

Big Blue chairs
Pillars
Front Desk
Computer(front desk)
Camera(front desk)
phone
sandwich board
posters
classroom windows
box windows
sanitary bin
girls toilet window
round window
TV
and the lugs and pipes that went between the pillars


and i also modelled the following objects when i finished my queens building objects:

dead body under cover
decayed sheet to go on top of the gurney
crash cart
iv drip
computer (hardrive, monitor, keyboard) for security room
filling cabinet

but as the project progressed i decided to move onto the unreal aspect of the project this included uploading my assets and other peoples assets including the textures. I also created quite a few of the decals in the level. But out of all of my assets the part i am most pleased about is the static on the TV.
I found on the whole that the group projects enabled me to learn alot especially in unreal which at the start of the project i knew nothing about unreal and now i can import assets with static meshes and textures and convert them to materials i can also create animated textures, decals and figure out why problems occur.

I had a few problems during the project one of these was the lines running down a few of my assets which i tried hard to figure out why it was happening but as the end of the project drew near i had to give in and make them again and export them differently than i had done the first time around.

This project has taught me to have other responsibilities so that if i fail I'm not just going to let myself down I'm going to let down everyone else in the group, Importing other peoples assets also enabled me to gain some more responsibility in the way that i had to handle other peoples assets and that if i didn't put them in right then that would be unfair to the person who made it so i decided to ask where people wanted their assets to go, which i thought would have been better than me putting them in where i wanted.
At the start of the project I was afraid of the group project and that i wouldn't like having the friction of working with other people but now that it is over I'm glad that that friction was there and if it had been an easy ride i wouldn't have learnt as much as i have.

In my third year (if i make it on) i hope to achieve the skills and high quality level that the current third years have, during one of the presentations by Del the difference between his second year work and third year work was massive, and sitting next to the third years and seeing how easily they use the programmes, form the first year to the second my work already (i think) made a quality leap and i hope that by heavy practice and looking for inspiration from other peoples work and flow lines, i hope that my work will make that second leap.
Drawing wise i hope to carry on improving which i know i am slowly. I keep having small revelations. Where things that have been said to me and explained over and over again finally click and make sense, I hope that in the third year these things will make sense and sink in faster so that i don't waste time making low standard work and then realise at the end of the year whats wrong with it.

Well ive altered and i think improved one of the masterpieces i chose to do way back before christmas. Here is the original of the anne bolyn piece i chose to do:

And here is my piece i chose to make it look more realistic and lifelike:

Well back to the group projects. My god I'm getting bored, its just looking at the same assets over and over again if I see those blue chairs again I might start a fire for them.

I might also have to make some changes in my evaluation because since the last presentation things have changed dramatically and we might actually have something to show at the end of it this time.
Well unreal update (which I've been picking up surprisingly quickly) I've learnt how to create animated textures (thanks Mark) for the TV I've nearly got fracture meshes, and I managed to cut a door out of the wall. I've also managed to get decals dirt and blood and the lighting is better as well. All of this, and all of the teams assets in the scene has improved the look of the level which mike said was boring and which I agree with, but I think now it'll be more interesting, hopefully. And I also hope to be able to have the rest of the teams assets in unreal by the end of the Easter holidays.

So far this “holiday” So called because I'm going to be in for most of it. I'm not complaining having time off is for the summer and trying to get good fast as well, I've started to alter my assets giving them more rounded off edges which heather asked for and I have also altered some of the finals for Chris. The final piece for Chris which I've altered is the train final. I think it looks a lot better, so much so I was disappointed in myself for handing in the first attempt because it was so crap and clearly unfinished.

In my review I had an aphifany I realised what Chris had been saying for the past almost two years less detail in the back of the image and more in the front makes the picture look 3d which is what I've tried to incorporate into my altered version of the train final.

unfortunately at the minute my internet wont let me load it so ill have to do it tomorrow when i go into uni.

Well I have to talk about the second year so im going to compare it to the first to show the difference.
I feel that the second year has befitted from the first years mistakes and as I, in the late first year, Managed to start opening Max without worrying what was going to happen and since have been able to fix most problems Max causes without closing it down in a fit of worry, and have since been able to create and model things faster, an example a four week project which in the first year would have taken me four or maybe more weeks took me one week.
Drawing wise I think on the digital front I have improved quite a bit maybe because ive gotten the hang of the brushes and where everything is, ive also gotten the hang of human poses thanks to life drawing which has enabled me to see the human form from most angles it has also enabled me to practise the aspect of drawing I had problems with perspective and foreshortening.

The group project has also enabled me to work with other people, and tolerate people who might upset me and who I might not work with normally.
I also think that the second year has allowed me to work better without having the tutors looking out all the time and that the other people in my class have helped me to learn things without having to bother heather all the time.
I think that the third year will have the tutors stepping back even further. And will rely on me sorting my own problems out even more than now.
It will also involve me becoming better at the 3D and drawing which is what I plan on doing over the summer by the third year I hope to have:

sorted out my normal maps
texture baking
and to be able to create better diffuse maps

I will also improve my drawing over the summer which will include perspective and landscape views.

Today I got a bit bored of having finished my assets for the group project so I decided I would have a go at the unreal stuff. Which im glad I did because, from mark, I learnt a lot today decals, lighting and what particular problems are and how they can be fixed. In fact I think that if I could have done this project over I would have put myself forward to do the unreal side of the project because I feel I would have been quite efficient with it and would have enjoyed it as well.
Tomorrow im going to attempt to make my tv texture animate so that the static flickers.

recently I've had the Internet. Well its not the proper "works within 2 seconds" Internet its more, wait a few hours for a single page to open even this website i had to wait around for.

but even this limited connection has been a massive distraction to me I've found myself spending hours on facebook and at the end of the day convinsing myself I've done hours of work when if i think back iv done half an hours worth at the most. The lack of Internet was another reason i came into uni for an hour and then come home again but not that distraction is at uni and at home as well.
Even when i sit down to do work i find myself thinking just five minutes on tetris and i'l get back to work.
So in future I'm going to have to restrain myself and disconnect.

all my assets so far some of the textures will have to be changed and more blood may be added

At the minute the group project has been going well considering ive spent alot of time avoiding thinking about and using unreal its surprisingly easy to use, and not only have the rest of my team been really helpful and patient with helping me i can now load packages import meshes and apply collision meshes which i applyed to all of my assets.
Im now going to have a look at importing textures into it as well.