well im quite pleased with my review it went better than i expected it to. Im glad I actually had those sleepless nights now.

over christmas i have to.....
for visual design
practice drawing round objects in perspective
do the interesting person project

for 3d
redo the rigging for my self portrait project
figure out why my normal maps are so bad
continue practicing 3d modelling

I also just had a work crit from cameron dead useful, need to alter
face topology
sholder shape
rendering techniques

3d work

heres is my recent 3d work:

this is also from the newarke museum this is from the cobbled road.

I did this because i wanted to practice environments and texturing

Im now going to comment on marks musings-I agree. the amount on arguments caused between my BOYFRIEND (yes mike i have one lol) and i because of my stress levels are one too many to count.

I alsowrote another blog but have now lost it so im going to try to re-write it as best i can

I n the "lost blog" I wrote about what we spoke about on tursday, mainly that of recent ive found it very useful to have all three areas of game art around me when i sit down to work, laptop, sketchbook and a word document for mike. So when i get half way through Heathers work and get bored i just have to turn to chris' work whereas before it was Id get bored of heathers work but because i couldnt be "bothered" to find chris' id just carry on.

well that was the jist of the blog

Id also like to include a picture of my recent final for chris:

This is the trenches in the newarke museum (the one next to the uni) and i chose it because of the way it was lit.

well as i said in last thursdays hour with mike i hate working in the labs due to the "judgement factor" which is mainly my phyco brain telling me that my work is crap and that the person sitting behind me's work is ten times better than mine which considering its usually third years sitting behind, it generally true.
Now the place i do find easiest to work in is my own house in front of the tv where no one knows wot the hell a vert or poly is.
i cant remeber who it woz that brought up the first years work i think it might have been rachael but yes it god damn intimidating to have a first year give you advice
or point out where you could improve, and it is very hard being in between two groups of people who are putting out awesome work, and then theres us, me in particular, only just found out about the "create" tool.i know that mike said that its not our fault or something alone those lines I feel like I personally havnt been trying my hardest even though I know that
I spend almost all of my time working on my 3d and as a result of that large amount of time being spent on 3d ive not been producing as much 2d work as id like so what chris said in my review is obviously right.
However i do feel like my modelling has improved a bit recently especially on the self portrait and i found that using splines on the face contours was helpful.

Ive enjoyed the recent films as well apart from the one with ice cube and ice t in it which as soon as someone said it was made by the guy who directed the warriors I spent the rest of the film wishing it was the warriors.
I thought the film as a whole was recked by the crappy acting i didlike the storyline though it was a cleaver idea to make "the building a charcter".
I aslo liked the part of black hawk down that the dvd allowed us to watch, as ive never seen it before, I especially liked the way it gave the charcetrs personalities so when they died you felt something for them
as quite a few films dont do that and you dont give a crap who lives or dies.
And last weeks film Enemy at the gates did the same as black hawk down. I cant explain why I liked it it was probrably the way they killed Helboy that were a shock.
I liked it enough to rewatch it on film4 today which i dont think has happened before.

I also wanted to put my train final in:

Masterpiece-who and why

The artsist and image i have chosen to recreate is "The Honourable Mars Graham" by Thomas Gainsborough. I have chosen this artist because I like the old fashioned style of the Painting, and pastile colours he has used such in the image i have chosen:

I chose this painting in particular becaus ei thought the way that the woman portrayed looks to be quite a delicate well dressed woman, but her eyes say that she could be something else. I also chose this painting because i love the ruffling in the dress and the intricacy of the woman as a whole. including all the small details on her dress but also the way that the background is subtle and implys detail

I also thought that it would be a bit of a challange due to all the detail. I also wanted to try to improve on the physicallity of the subject as i thought that the neck was a bit out of preportion.

i picked this particular artist for the way he portrays what is happening in his scenes. i also like the way that the subjects in his paintings look aloof and royal making his paintings look grand. I aslo liked the realistic nature of his paintings but also the way he had an overly pastille look to them aswell which made the landscapes look attractive and at a perfect time of the year.

i also liked his landscapes for the same reason because most of them have a bright and sunny feel to them.

this is my final piece:

I tried to make the neck look more realistic is shape and legnth and i also tried to recreate the subtle background of the original. I particularly like the way i recerated the skirt on my version.

Ive always mainly reflected on, how something happened, how it turned out and these two things tell me whether to do it again. This also applies how i learn at uni. In heathers lessons i will use a process again (or not) depending on how well it went. This in recent months has also been applied to drawing with the techniques that Chris and jack have taught, this however also means i now have to think about drawing before i do it.


Also after reading the first link about how after imagining an idea most people skip straight to the creating it part of the process. However if there was one thing i learnt from college was never skip the in between steps as these are crucial to refining and improving your work. I think that this is how I learn what looks good and what looks bad by using those steps and i think that that is what the first link is saying-by skipping those parts and not "reflecting" on your ideas you loose quality.
However like it said in the task layout thinking more clearly is an essential life skill and i think that for me this is one thing i will have to work on, as i think that my work, especially the projects for Chris, can become easily distracted and go off course

I also would have liked to have read the other two links but I'm at a library and because its quite shit it won't let me.

i think my blogs are in the wrong order, again, sorry.

So creativity part two well i er don't know where to go from the last time.

well i suppose since last time, we had that talk on creativity, and i also found out that without meaning creativity is non existent, it can also be belittled by others and therefore ruined which I'm sure is what that guy from the video was talking about when he was saying that school education has ruined creativity. Which i agree with in some aspects, i mean if the a child is seen to be good at art by the teacher then their art will be put on the wall. I remember on more that one occasion some children in my primary school class had their work put up and other children when they asked about their work were actually told that theirs wasn't as good as the displayed work which is probably where he was coming from.

He also said that "children are being taught out of creativity" i also agree with this as I wasn't really taught how to draw by any of my teachers but as i said above i was told when a picture was "wrong" through my grades. A "better" picture would get a better grade. So that pretty much taught me how i shouldn't draw, not how I should.

I believe that creativity can be shown in many different ways, like i said in my last blog, i think that u don't really need to draw to be creative and that art is not the only output or conduit of creativity. However ideas can be creative as well but i think that its what u do with the idea and how u present it, in your head creative thoughts are pretty much pointless.

I have to apologise again that this isnt as long as id have liked.

right i think that the subject for this blog is "where i want to be in the future".
Now I know that most people who have come through this course have always said the want to go into game design, making games and the such like. Now don't get me wrong i do too but there are other things i want for my future too.
I don't just want to go into a games company, I would be happy in most jobs, and grateful. I would be more grateful if the job i did get was in the industry i had trained for 3 years to be in, but a jobs a job, i suppose.

I however also want other, non job related stuff like a family, i mean Ive always thought that its quite pointless having a career if your going to die alone, wow that's quite morbid but that's how i feel, and since this blogs about careers, i wont keep talking about it.

Drawing for me has always been very important and as far as i can remember all I've ever really done is draw and sketch, also all I've ever really wanted was to draw for a living.
when i was younger i remember saying that i wanted to be an artist and this course is just me narrowing that fields of work down.

So i suppose in all, i would love to ultimately end up in a career which involves drawing, but i suppose the recent times any job is something to be grateful for.
and I'm sorry if this blog hasn't been as long as some of the others but this subject of "the future" scares me a bit.

these are some of the models ive bin workin on in my spare time and i thought id put them up because im proud of them :D

i like the black dressed woman best, because i think that her skin tone and posture is better than the second one i also dont think that the bottom one is entirely correct.

well after just typing "demand for game art courses" into google all that seems to come up is a mass of websites claiming that their coarse is highly successful rate among students which at first suggests that there is a demand for game art courses and that studios do want graduates.

However just before joining this coarse when i was still deciding whether to stay at Stephenson's or come here i read in the paper that Eidos were complaining about game art students, claiming that they we rent experienced enough when they got to industry, and they also claimed that most game art courses were a joke. naturally this scared me a bit and i was even more unsure about where to go. After coming to an opening day and to my interview, where i was able to view the work of the students here and speak to them, my mind was set at ease.



This was before the recession of course and now i am getting worried again, this might not seem like its got noting to do with "demand for game art courses" but it does. I suppose if your not on "the right course" or a coarse that's got connections to industry, then you may not prosper after the recession ends and its time to get a job.

I can see the high and low points to wanting highly trained graduate artists or programmers and creative individuals with a good Liberal Arts background.
With a trained background employers are more likely to get people who know what they are doing with the programmes, like 3ds max. But with the creative arts background employers are more likely to get more creativity in their employees, and with better skills in the drawing department.
I would say that better drawing skills are probably better to have than the programme skills, as most people can learn the programmes in a few weeks. I suppose its a good thing that this coarse teaches drawing and modelling.

Hopefully this entry will be better than the last one.

Sound, I find is one of the most useful tools in the entire game in creating atmosphere and tension etc. It is also useful to set the mood of the game for example the music for the Sims *shudder* will be completely different to Manhunt.


I’ve also found that some games use sound to tell u something as well. Again in manhunt when your "spotted" the music changes to tell the player. Again in Devil May Cry 3 the game doesn’t have music until the fighting starts.


Other games like Soul Reaver have music all the way through like background music. This works well only if it’s not off putting to the player. this also applies to the other games above if the game is tense like manhunt then permanent background music is not a good idea, unless it blends in, (which is why I think that soul Reaver is such a good game, as it manages to be quite dark and not have off-putting background music). But if is light-hearted like the Sims or other games like animal crossing then it is better and adds to that games charm or appeal.

Unfortunately I’ve never played on Halo so I haven’t heard the music that Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards created so I can’t comment on it personally. However this extract taken from http://www.apbspeakers.com/resources/speakerpdf/1002111.pdf seems to suggest that those pieces of music were quite important: Today, Rodgers finds himself at the helm of the next craze: the rapidly growing video game soundtrack industry. Recognizing that music is becoming "as integral to the game experiences as soundtracks are to movies," Rodgers is the go-to guy responsible for recent hits such as Microsoft Xbox’s Outlaw Volleyball, and Halo, along with the next pop phenomenon, Halo 2, being released in April, 2004.

This extract also suggests the same thing:
Nile is also the first African-American to own his own music distribution company – Sumthing Distribution. Sumthing recently formed a joint venture with Bungie and Microsoft and released the soundtrack to “Halo Combat Evolves”. Sumthing is now a leader in the distribution of video game soundtracks.
So basically now, probably because of that soundtrack his music distribution company is a leader in that field so the halo soundtrack must have been good.

This is a definition of a game engine taken from Wikipedia:

"A game engine is a software system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and desktop operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. The core functionality typically provided by a game engine includes a rendering engine (“renderer”) for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, and a scene graph. The process of game development is frequently economized by in large part reusing the same game engine to create different games."

This basically translates into what you run your models through to make them playable, or to make the characters playable etc.

I have limited knowledge of game engines, actually id didn’t even know they existed before this course

This explains (almost) basically what a game engine is:
The game engine is generally the library of core functions used in the game, usually related to graphics, input, networking and other systems.

Another explanation of the game engine is taken from this website: http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/529/what_is_a_game_.php

This extract explains that the game engine is basically the component that brings the game to life i.e. the animating objects/characters, loading screens and displays and "collision detection between objects".
Also according to some of the second/third years and heather the game engine is also where your mistakes when modelling are found, when for example two faces and overlapping etc.

For starters I don't have "friends" i know only through MSN, mainly because my parents have never decided top get the Internet. But even if I had ever had the Internet at home i still don't think that i would have any just Internet friends. But I do think that websites like facebook, and maybe my space help your friendships you make in the real world to grow, and helps you to get to know your friends better, and get in touch with older lost friends.

Anyway, gaming for me is part of a bigger picture. For example when I'm at home I usually just draw most of the time, however if I'm in the mood i will play on my PlayStation. I think that this is probably something to do with the lack of games that I own, and some of them I have either finished or were so crap that I put them in once and then put them away again.
However if i find a game i really enjoy or really get into that's all ill do until i finish it.

However Ive made a few mistakes, when i first put gun in, i lost and got angry and put it away, haha, if id known u could ride a horse i would have carried on...

I don't really know what gaming cultures I'm a part of. Il just name what I do and don't like and il go from there.

I like games like devil may cry but i wouldn't for example go out dressed as the characters to conventions. I also enjoy most Rockstar games. so realistically i don't belong to any particular gaming culture i borrow parts of different cultures to make up my own personal gaming interests. I do however have one specification to all games i play there must be some sort of violence, any kind or amount as long as it has it in there.

The Game Industry at the minute is, well, not too good mainly because of the recession, and like most places of work and industry there aren't too many jobs going, so like most people on this coarse I'm a bit worried. However the industry isn't in such a bad situation as some other industries or bossiness's. This also shows what the major issues of the industry are at the minute, no, or less jobs.

However this article from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3612/analyze_this_is_the_video_game_.php which basically claims that although the gaming industry has many followers, and people who are willing to spend their money on new releases, that this industry is not untouchable, and even though people are still spending their money they are just spending less of it.



This next website http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/games-already-impacted-by-recession-npd says where the industry might have been if it weren't for the recession, it says that the industry is still growing but would have alot bigger if it weren't for the recent economy problems.

Another problem facing the industry might be, where to go next? how much further can the quality and the upgrades with the new consoles be taken. At the minute the graphics quality of the newest games are already extremely high, so how much better can they make them. Also wit consoles like the Wii which makes the user more involved and active in the playing of the games, where will they go next? and how can they make the player become even more involved and in control of how they play the game.

A problem for people trying to get into the industry, is that it will become increasingly difficult to get in, as the employers will not be taking on substantial people and will be looking for the best which forces everyone to become better, this i don't think is so much of a problem because if everyone is getting better games quality will also increase.

Im so proud of this horse, i think it needs its own blog entry. I especially love its tail.

I love alpha mapping!!!!

(Oh yeah, credit to mark)

This is just to say that I finally took up "Gun" again, I got to the credits and saw Ben Mathis's name.
I think its just me, but thats awesome.........

Creativity is quite weird, I suppose if you don't have it then you could be seen to be quite a boring or limited person. However to get through life I don't suppose its necessary.

However in the gaming industry, like most artistic industries, Creativity is a must, If you don't have it then, like before your designs would be boring and I suppose it would completely rip of other games and their characters.

I also think that this is probably where blatant plagiarism comes from, the inability to think of your own ideas, which would lead to copying of other peoples work.

This quote was taken from:http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_creativity.html


Abraham Maslow:
The key question isn't "What fosters creativity?" But it is why in God's name isn't everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything.


This one, looks to be a better definition of the term "creativity"


Alan Alda:
The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.


Which is true because to be creative you must look around at things u might never have noticed or taken inspiration from before. Because if u just used things you were knew about before, in every single drawing and piece of work you did that would not be creative, it would become repetitive and boring.

Before reading that quote i thought that creativity was just, anything that you've drawn or made.


This quot taken from the same website is strange but I kind of understand it:

Carl Sagan:
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.

I suppose its saying that to create something you must think about every little bit first, and take inspiration from stuff around before you can come to any kind of an end product.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/creativity


"The quality or ability to create or invent something; originality.2


I think that the key word of this extract is originality, Because like i said before if what you've made isn't original, or just takes inspiration from other people work or the world around you, its not really creative, its copying.



The world of games however, can show their creativity clearly, Through the costumes or clothes their characters wear, the monsters or "villains" that they fight. Or the surroundings that the characters fight in. A number of the games that I have played on have had the most interesting and original surroundings, like Soul Reaver, which also has the most creative and memorable characters in it. Another game with an original backdrop is the price of Persia game i mentioned last week, The different areas of the different castles and palaces were very intricately thought through.

Another way that a game can show creativity is through its entire concept. Soul Reaver and Shadowman for the PS1 had a very original story lines.

So probably in all, along with film, The games industry probably has the most chances and ways of showing its creativity, as it has alot more mediums to go with and use to its advantage

Technical Constarints probrably used to hinder the creativity of the game, more than now. I doubt that the artists who designed the first Lara Croft, drew her out as Triangles and boxes. By todays standards the artists can design pretty much what appears in the actual finished game, so there are less technical restraints now rather than back then.
Out of all the people listed-the art director, The artists, Programmers, and the Writers, I think that all of them play a part in the creativity of a game but contribute in different ways and their contributions usually come in different orders so the people who get the game/characters last may have more restraints on their creativity than the writers who would have first come up with the ideas

I think that this is another part of creativity, whether or not what you "create" is memorable, or will it just be forgotten after a first glance.
This is the way that I would want my work to be awknowledged in, I would like it to memorable, in a good way, because I try to make all of my work original, but as soon as it starts to blend in with the rest of my work then I know I'm going to have to start rethinking my work.

Gameplay

I'm actually going to start by going back to characters as i re started prince of Persia, two thrones i think its called. I think that this is a perfect example of the game building up a characters personality, using not only cut scene, but in the actually game, with the constant voice overs of the price talking to himself, and that weird demon thing. Unfortunately although the game does this well and shows exactly who he is and what his personality is, I find him irritating and whiny. And i think that this proves my point that if the player doesn't like the character then they don't care if they die.

However going back to the actual task, I do think that the "gameplay" (which i associate with the actual playing of the game) for Price of Persia is awesome, I also think that because its so varied and theres so many moves that the price can do it makes the game interesting. I however haven't finished it for one simple reason- the massive statue bit, i got it all the way down the other side of the room and he fell off.

This extract taken fro wikipedia explains, basic terms what some people view the word gamplay to mean:

"Some gaming reviews give a specific score for gameplay, along with graphics, sound, and replay value. Many consider "gameplay" to be the most important indicator of the quality of a game."

However i have never really judged the graphics and sound to be part of the term gamplay i have always thought of gameplay as being the actual playing of a game- how much there is to do within a game, how easy it is to use the combos etc.

This is taken from www.game.co.uk/lowdown.aspx

"Gameplay: A general term that's difficult to define, but on the whole relates to the way a game responds to a player's control, and how enjoyable the overall experience proves as a result."

Which generally would mean, for me, the controls, and the moves etc as this is what the user interacts with most while using the game, and proves what i believe that gameplay generally referes to the controls and the things the player will interact with.

This is why i games like devil may cry (1+3, not 2, 2 was crap) and prince of Persia appeal to me because theres lots of moves which are not easy but not too hard to master. I don't think that this is the entire meaning of gameplay but its probably the most interesting as this is probably the factor that will keep the player playing the game for longer.

Alone with the story if the gameplay isn't interesting enough the player probrably wont be using the game for long.

Characters (I'm gonna start giving these blogs heading since I'm not sure whether they re in order or not)

Characters in games i think are equally as important and the story, for example, i personally don't think that some of the tomb raider games have very good or memorable story lines ( except legend which i gave my sister for Christmas, that story was easy to follow and because the game play was interesting i kind of enjoyed it). However because everyone remembers the character of Lara croft, the way she looks and the way she talks and acts the games are memorable.


Natalie and me were talking the other day about stories and characters in games and we agreed that after a while the grand theft auto games just got boring, if all your doing is running around pointlessly shooting people. After a while you will eventually stray onto the missions, and the storyline (which admittedly isn't very good)


This extract from http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000720/gard_01.htm explains how the development of characters has evolved with the development of graphics, game play etc:


"As games evolve into an increasingly complex and sophisticated medium, game characters are also experiencing a considerable metamorphosis. Just a few years ago, a game character had to be simple enough so that it could be represented clearly under very severe artistic limitations. Essentially, game characters were just icons, amorphous blobs, or tiny men rendered from a handful of pixels. But steady technological progress has slowly opened up possibilities for more believable and realistic characters. The question now is, how does a game developer leverage all of these additional technical resources to create more compelling characters? "


I agree with this in some ways as over time more advances cut scenes with better graphics have made it possible for a character to be shown off better and for its personality and actions to be made more defined. When characters like Lara croft are compared with characters from the Mega drive the difference is enormous. like the extract above said, earlier games were basically just moving pixels around a screen avoiding and attacking different things but now u actually care about what happens to the character., and i think that that is where the success or downfall of a character is, whether the player feels anything for the character, if the character isn't like able the user wont care whether they live or die.


oh and while I'm here I'm going to try to put a picture in:


haha i win!!
this is my favourite bit of work Ive done so far.
Part painting part photoshop :)