tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71893012134511681912024-02-20T02:38:30.398-08:00Free WafflesOlivia Anderton. Second year Game Art student at De Montfort University.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-87429967815544937232015-05-21T06:20:00.000-07:002015-06-01T06:21:47.994-07:00Off The Map Post Mortem - Goodbye Alice, goodbye year twoAnd so this is it, the final post of this academic year, and what a crackin' year it has been. Before I get properly into this post, and reflect on my last project of year two, I just want to take the opportunity to thank all the tutors for their support this year, and anyone I worked in a group with, as I wouldn't have made it through without your help.<br />
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After a week of mulling over what me and my group achieved in the Alice project, I can safely say that I am the proudest I have been so far this year. The quality of the level is great overall, even with a few issues with loading and the like, and everyone has their own individual star pieces throughout the game which is nice to see.<br />
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One part I definitely feel has been very successful is that the style throughout the game has remained consistent. Our style guide has proved to have been easy to follow, as every member has produced assets which are in-keeping with the theme of the level and don't stand out and throw it off balance. This was something I thought we were going to struggle with, after having not produced a guide until quite late in the game, but in the end it worked out very well for us.<br />
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Another stand-out part of the level is the gameplay element, which I have to say lies on the shoulders of Jake and Emily mainly, so massive kudos to them. I feel like our game is genuinely fun to play. Some parts are a little difficult, with jumps being a bit too unforgiving, but apart from that it plays well and introduces the game mechanics smoothly. As well as this, we have a few cut scenes to split bits of the level up, and even some dialogue, which all add to the level nicely. Jake also incorporated some interesting loading screens to help make the transitions from each level more interesting, and these work well. I am definitely pleased we chose to keep the game as a side-scroller, because there's elements of gameplay that would have no existed if we had chosen otherwise, and I think these are what make our level work the most.<br />
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A bit of an issue, which we are still trying to fix now, is loading times. When transitioning to the forest area, the game takes an impossibly long time to load, almost seeming as if it has crashed every time. We had to wait a good ten minutes or so to get it to load last time, and if we're not careful people are going to think the game is unplayable. To help with this, we are working on reducing the loading time dramatically. And also, if we put some sort of animation into the loading screen, it will be obvious to the player that the game is still loading, rather than just crashed,as the animation would be frozen if it had crashed.<br />
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Overall, I am so proud of my team it's unreal (no pun intended). I was constantly in awe the whole project at the skills and talents of my teammates, and I think we can all be really happy with the game we have managed to produce this project. We will now hopefully iron out a few issues with it in time for the competition hand-in, and see where it goes from there.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-202410340919947202014-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:002015-05-05T16:45:08.883-07:00"Design a character"...*draws Lilo from Lilo & Stitch*<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And so here it begins. The project I have been dreading ever since my painful excuse for a gladiator in my first year; a character project. I'm going to try and tackle this with optimism, because if I'm sure I'll fail miserably then no doubt that is what will happen. The brief for the project is to create to dichotomous characters that would exist in the same universe. They have to be different enough to be classed as dichotomous, but compliment each other at the same time. This initially sounded quite difficult to me but once I had a look at a few examples, it became quite apparent what sort of steps I needed to take to start this project.</div>
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My first step was to create a mood board of styles of which I would like to use as inspiration for my characters. I haven't really done too much stylised stuff up until this point, and I feel like this would be a good project to get a bit of experience of it under my belt. It also means I can be a little less detailed with the textures which is always a plus, especially when my character texturing is beyond a joke at this point. I mainly looked at Disney style characters, which I feel like may have been a little bit of a cliche, but I really admire the simple designs which show so much emotion. I decided these would be good as inspiration since there's so much reference out there for me to utilise since there's so many different Disney films, and it's also a style I'm relatively confident I can imitate.</div>
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I then felt like it'd be a good idea to jot down a few ideas that I was having, so I could have a direction to further research now that I had found the sort of style I was going for. As you can see in the rather messy chart below, I mostly took two dichotomous 'things' and then further went on to see how I could differentiate between them if I were to make them into a character. I did the most research for the sun and moon, finding out that the Greek gods Helios and Selene, gods of the Sun and Moon, were in fact brother and sister, posing for a good dichotomous relationship that still had a strong link between the two. And so, this is the idea I chose to develop further.</div>
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As you can see, I went on to develop various mood boards, first to work out what sort of facial features and hair I'd like my characters to have, and using imagery of the sun and moon to inform my choices. I decided I wanted a clearly rounded look for the moon, the female, and a more sharp edged but fiery-haired look for the sun, the male. I then began to look at clothing, mainly focusing on black, white and gold, with elements of Greek and modern mixed together.</div>
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I then went on to look at some Art Deco patterns, as I felt they had an elegance and monochromatic look that fitted well with my idea for the type of clothing and styling I'd like my characters to have. I'd also decided I wanted to incorporate some sun and moon imagery into the costume designs, just so it's more apparent that they're supposed to be Helios and Selene.</div>
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Following on from this, I had a look at putting together some basic shapes to get a silhouette for the faces of my characters. For the sun, I used a square and a circle to get some harsh edges for his face, and then with the moon I used a circle and an oblong type shape to get the curves of her face. From there, I drew over my chosen combination and put together a face for each of them. I much preferred the female face, and decided there and then that if I only got to model one of the characters it would be her. I then further explored using different hairstyles, most influenced by my prior research, until I got two basic heads with hair.</div>
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At this point, I have to say I don't like either of the hairs, but maybe that's because I'm incapable of drawing hair onto a face without using direct reference, so this may need to be something I look back at before moving forward. I also feel like at the moment they're almost too simple, and even though that's the point of Disney, at the moment the girl just looks like a copy of Lilo from Lilo and Stitch, and he doesn't even look remotely related to her.</div>
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And then experimented with body shapes, using references from life models and then exaggerating features to make it more stylised. Using these body shapes, I began to block out outfits for my characters based on my clothing and Art Deco moodboards, focusing on hers being much more rounded, and his being more jagged and sharp.</div>
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At this point, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with these two. I don't think the designs have lived up to how good the idea was originally, and I feel like I haven't really done them justice. I have a presentation to receive feedback on my progress so far, so hopefully the tutors will be able to point me in the right direction. I feel like I've rushed this so far, as I haven't really been given a lot of time to concept before I need to present to people, and with me not being great at characters anyway this seems like a bad combination. Once I receive some feedback I'll be able to clarify exactly what it is I need to do to push these characters further, and make the most of the original idea.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-70155285457302466532014-11-28T13:12:00.000-08:002015-05-05T14:29:34.316-07:00'Sew' close to victoryThe sentry gun project has come to a close, and if this project has taught me anything, it's that I really rather dislike working alone now. After having so much fun in the group projects prior, and then struggling so much with this one, it's pretty evident that group work motivates me way more. I wanted to take away so much from doing the sentry gun. I wanted to leave myself enough time to put it into myself and understand the mechanics of that process, so future projects would be much easier. But as always, I ran out of time, and admittedly had to get help importing it into engine, basically ruining my chances of learning how to finally get to grips with it.<br />
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I have to say, the overall look was much better than I had anticipated, since my texturing is still not really up to scratch. I wish I had left a longer amount of time to finish the texture so that I could have increased the standard, but I'm relatively pleased with how it turned out with the amount of time I had.<br />
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Another thing I wish I had allotted more time for was the poster. As a former GCSE graphics student, I should have been capable of producing a much more successful poster than I did, but unfortunately time did not permit me to do so. The poster is very basic, doesn't sell the gun well, and the actual editing of the screenshot is sloppy. It sort of fits the type of style I was going for, with it being a 1950s themed poster, but everything apart from that is just plain lazy, and I only have my timekeeping to blame.<br />
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I took a few renders in Max, which obviously don't have the glass texture on them, as that was a material I created in Unreal. But then my final render is from Unreal, which includes the glass material applied to the bottle, finishing the look.<br />
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One of the main things that bugs me about the model is that the colour of the ribbon coming off the spool of cotton isn't the same as the colour of the cotton, which looks strange. As well as this, I wish I had put more tris into the roundness of the button, as in the renders it's quite obviously very low-poly and for something that should be so round it's really noticeable. There's also horrible seam issues with the button too, which isn't ideal considering it's right at the front of the model.</div>
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I really should have ticked double-sided before I took my render as well, because the final render has a few bits missing due to this. I was just so rushed and I'm so annoyed at myself for letting myself be so rushed.</div>
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Overall, I expected this project to be a disaster due to my timing issues, luckily it wasn't quite, but it wasn't the best outcome either. If I had hurried the modelling process more, I would have actually had time to polish and fix the many issues that became apparent once I put it into engine. Hopefully in the next project, let us pray it's a group one, I can push myself a little more and sort out my huge timing issues.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-45550475131927524212014-11-20T12:15:00.000-08:002015-03-16T13:11:46.800-07:00Realising I don't like thimbles...I've modeled my gun now and I have to say I'm relatively happy with it. I've had to change a few things from my original concepts which just seemed to work much better when I tinkered with them. It was also a struggle to keep it within the tris budget due to the round shapes I used, especially the thimble...SO ANNOYING TO MODEL FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON. But all in all I can't complain too much, it's worked out okay for the most part. I've noticed I've got so much better with keeping my geometry neater now, and I'm pleased that's become almost instinctual when I had so many problems with it last year.<br />
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Anyway, enough with the rambles, here's a few screenshots of my progress as I went along so you get an idea of how I went about it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtwfEYQMPxVTUwMJukanCAN_s69iAkG5-cSezSd5KHQxlEX3Jp8Oxr7r6tB41y3zyjswshn3Wc-SSsOdxgV-KDQwHesEMlQI_FDFPegkrlfyewmAZ63oDuqjCFkCjG1Hr_LFi0c8xhTL8/s1600/sentry+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtwfEYQMPxVTUwMJukanCAN_s69iAkG5-cSezSd5KHQxlEX3Jp8Oxr7r6tB41y3zyjswshn3Wc-SSsOdxgV-KDQwHesEMlQI_FDFPegkrlfyewmAZ63oDuqjCFkCjG1Hr_LFi0c8xhTL8/s1600/sentry+1.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></a></div>
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I feel like I'm relatively happy with the outcome so far, but I feel like I need to see it textured to some extent to get the full effect of the haberdashery style I'm going for. Plain grey doesn't really do the vintage look much justice.<br />
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It was really difficult to model all the different components I wanted whilst keeping within the tris limit due to there being so many rounded parts. Hence why some of the parts I had planned to include aren't actually there. I weighed up the most important pieces against the least important and cut out what I felt wasn't necessary. I also flipped certain parts to allow them to slot together better and make sure there weren't any huge gaps in the overall gun, otherwise it may have look a little odd and unstable. Once I had finished modelling and then priortising components, the total amount of tris came to 4,836 which I was surprised with since I had struggled previously to keep it under the 5,000 limit.<br />
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Next step is to get unwrapping as quick as possible, and then on to texturing because I want to make that look as good as possible since it's usually the part I rush. I'm only giving myself one day to unwrap since I think that's reasonable and not pushing myself too much.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-44578893842620360642014-11-12T13:09:00.000-08:002015-03-16T13:11:13.509-07:00Cotton, buttons and cute things galoreI've been working on my sentry gun for a little while now and I'm kind of happy with the direction it's going. I've made some mood boards and worked up some concepts using silhouettes from the images I've collected, which is a workflow that I have yet to get completely used to. I was pretty quick to decide that I wanted to do a sort of 'higgledy-piggledy' type sentry, and that made me choose to do something based on items you'd find in a haberdashery. I'd also hope to incorporate some mechanics from a sewing machine in there and have every piece something completely related to sewing.<br />
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I realised pretty early on that nearly all of the sewing materials I was collecting as reference were what you'd call 'vintage' or 'old-fashioned' and so it only seemed natural to base my gun on a specific time period. I chose World War 2 due to the big 'Sew For Victory' campaign that was happening at the time, and I felt a gun made of sewing equipment would fit quite well.</div>
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I then went on to take some silhouettes from my mood boards and turn them into a sort of kit of building blocks for some guns. I randomly placed the objects down until I got a shape that looked remotely like a sentry gun, until I had a fair selection to choose from.</div>
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I felt by doing this I really struggled to get many that actually looked like they could be working sentry guns, and also, I just found it difficult in general to come up with so many different ways to compose the shapes. This then led me to take some pictures of a sewing machine and make some more detailed silhouettes from those, which I then laid on top of my existing silhouettes to attempt to make them more interesting.</div>
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If I'd have had a longer period of time to complete the project, I would have perhaps tried to churn out some more silhouettes to come up with a more interesting bunch than I ended up with. Sadly, as the time is very limited with this project, I chose to move on quickly and just make the best of what I had, and so my top three were taken forward for more development.<br />
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To me, the bottom two look a little bit too modern for the look I'm going for, especially the bottom one as it looks like a needle full of chemicals from a sci-fi movie. I felt like the top one looked quite retro in a way, almost resembling a cutesie ray gun, and I quite liked the feel of it. My favourite design of the top three is the end one, simply because it is the most interesting of the three silhouettes.</div>
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It's been important for me from the start to make sure the gun is made solely from objects you'd find in a haberdashery, and so my next aim was to split the gun up into shapes that could all be recognised as equipment used for sewing. I found this more difficult than I had anticipated, and perhaps now I feel like there was a much easier way of approaching this rather than making silhouettes out of the shapes to then piece the shapes back into it. After two attempts, I felt like my second try was as successful as I was going to get, and I am eager to start the modelling process so I'm going to go with it.</div>
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Hopefully in my next post I'll be able to show you some progress regarding the modelling and texturing, I don't expect the modelling to take me too long, as I seem to knock things up pretty quick these days, it's the texturing I'm more worried about time-wise, as it's going to be full of lots of different textures and components, which comes with the very nature of the gun, and I just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. I can only try my best I s'pose, and I'm happy to feel like I'm pushing my technical skills a little.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-51453843925623184872014-11-08T13:03:00.000-08:002015-03-19T16:51:00.412-07:00Film room project post mortem - white scribbles explained<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It's been a week now and I've had time to really think about the film room project and assess how well we actually did. Strangely enough, reflection time hasn't really changed my opinion on how well we did, I'm still pretty pleased with how things went. And I've racked my brains numerous times to try and think of how we might have better used our time in certain aspects and all in all I don't really think it'd have made much difference no matter how we'd have allocated our time. We did about as good as we could managed at this stage, and I can be proud knowing that fact. We decided to circle aspects of the screenshot to highlight areas that weren't perfect, and so for my post mortem I'll go through a few of them just to clarify what we mean by all the white scribbles.</div>
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Firstly, one of the big issues is the actual perspective of the image. We always knew it was going to be an issue trying to get it spot on due to the original shot using a special wide lens which shows a pan of the room, which proved extremely hard to replicate in engine. Due to this, there are issues with actual view of room, with certain assets appearing more/less than they should in the shot. A really obvious one being the perspective of the blinds, and the large greyish mass which appears in the left when it quite clearly should not. The only way to fix this would have been to tamper with the perspective of the camera a little more, and perhaps make that portion of the wall red so it's less blatant that it shouldn't be there.<br />
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Moving on from this a little to the left, there's a large strip of light cast onto the red wall which shouldn't be there. Perhaps putting some well-placed geometry outside the window might have got rid of this, but we had so much trouble with the blinds that I'm not sure if we'd have ever got it perfect anyway.<br />
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Another thing we should have maybe looked at was creating the shadow found on the lower portion of the blinds. The actual colouring of the blinds is wrong to start with, but creating that odd shaped shadow on the bottom would have increased the likeness even moreso. Again, this was just an issue with the lighting, and whether we'd have been able to ever get this perfect I cannot say, especially as I have basically no knowledge of lighting myself, it'd have been up to my other team members sadly.<br />
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As I discussed in my earlier posts, certain assets, especially those which I made, aren't properly scaled in the scene. The one that really stands out for me is the blue vase in the foreground near the right corner. It's not coloured correctly which makes the error even more obvious, but if it had been made a little smaller in engine it would have looked a lot more similar to the original image. I totally realise this is my fault, and had I been more focused on particulars, especially those related to my own assets, I could have pointed this out to someone and fixed it, or even fixed it myself.<br />
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Another obvious perspective issue can be seen when looking at the beams. They are way too visible and at slightly the wrong angle, and due to the very nature of a beam following the flow of the room, they really help to highlight the error with the perspective. They are also too bright, which is due to the lighting being too powerful in that general area.<br />
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It's terrible but now I'm looking at the two images side by side I'm finding it so easy to nitpick and find tons of faults in our project. If I were to try again, I'd have definitely made lighting an even bigger priority than we already had. We allocated as much time as we could spare on it, but maybe we could have worked a little faster on making the assets and left an extra day or so for the lighting. Even as little as an extra couple of hours could have completely changed the outcome of the lighting. The perspective is also something else we could have worked on a little more. I think we got so fed up with it NEVER matching up that we gave up a little bit, but I reckon we could have got it even closer if we'd have given it a couple more tries. And on a personal note, I'd have made sure to be more involved with the actual putting together of the scene, as I could have helped point out errors and made sure my assets were in the correct places and the correct size.<br />
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All in all, I still stand by what I said originally and think that we wouldn't have been able to achieve much more in the time we were allocated. Our team worked relatively well together as a unit, but it was quite obvious certain members did do more work than others. Perhaps in a different team with individuals all working to a similar level we might have achieved something of better quality, but I don't want to dwell on that, it's important to make do with the team you have at the end of the day. We managed to finish to an acceptable standard and that's all that matters.<br />
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I've learnt a lot about myself in this project. I know now that I really like to make all the little objects in a scene that no one cares about, but perhaps that isn't exactly a good thing. I think I'm a little afraid to be given something that if not done well will be detrimental to the project, and that's not a good way to feel. I feel like I need to throw myself into doing important assets in future projects, as it'll help me gain confidence and also then I can be even prouder of my achievements as they'll be more noticeable.<br />
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I'm looking forward to the next project, although I don't know how I feel about working on my own again. I really enjoy the support of a group and having people to bounce off, so being on my own again might be a not so enjoyable experience for me, but we shall have to see.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-63288367020803085892014-11-05T17:03:00.000-08:002015-03-16T13:10:45.570-07:00"All by myself, don't wanna' be all by myself..."This is going to be a quick post mortem post on the film project, since it's been about a week now since we handed it in and I've had some time to reflect on it. There also might be the occasional sad comment about how I've now been set a solo project, and it feels a bit weird not working in a group for the first time this year.<br />
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I think the best thing to do would probably be show the original screenshot up against the finished product and then go from there really, so here it is.</div>
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So when I look back at this now so much jumps out at me as being really rather inaccurate. Once finished, I couldn't wait to push it aside and begin something else after spending 3 weeks straight on it, but now I look at it and wish I could spend so much longer on it to fix things. At the time, I have to say I was very proud of what we achieved. It may not be the most uncanny resemblance you've ever seen, certainly not as close as some of the other groups managed, but we did it in the time given and the models and textures were all pretty solid, even if the lighting wasn't so much.</div>
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One of the best parts about our project was how well we handled time-keeping for the most part. I worked out a system and certain deadlines for aspects of the project, and everyone pretty much stuck to them. It made us so much more organised, we hit the deadline with time to spare, and meant that we all were at the same stage throughout the project with each of our individual sets of models so no one got left behind.</div>
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Our teamwork ethic was pretty good as well. There were no major fallouts or arguments between group members at any time, and we all felt comfortable enough to critique each other's work when needed even though some of us had barely known each other before the project. I think the fact we weren't all necessarily 'chummy' with each other before we began the project helped us keep a sense of professionalism when discussing the project, but also meant I got to make some new friends (YAY FRIENDS).</div>
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And finally, another good part of the project for us was the models. It's hard to see in the final render, but we produced some models which were pretty spot on in terms of colour and patterns etc. The lighting has made the colours appear all wrong in UE4, but before we placed them all together in a lit scene the textured models looked good in my opinion. </div>
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Right, and as for the things that didn't go so well, firstly there's the communication side of things...We weren't terrible, but we weren't great either. At the beginning of the project, barely any of us were in labs together, and the amount of talking we did in person was limited. We used Facebook for a lot of our chatting and feed backing to each other, but I found the most important information and critique we got was when we were talking face to face or working alongside each other in the labs. We had a couple of issues where people hadn't registered certain information that was given on Facebook and ended up doing things in a way which we hadn't intended or wanted, and I feel like this would have been avoided if this kind of information could have been given in person instead.</div>
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Another big thing, which I now realise makes or breaks a scene, is the lighting. I can't even believe how much of a pain it ended up being. I'm not particularly good at UE4, and I still have a lot to learn about it, but I had even assumed I'd be capable of managing some sort of accurate lighting within the scene. Turns out I didn't have a clue, and even the team members who were better at engine stuff struggled. We waded through iteration after iteration of the lighting, some making the scene turn a pinkish colour, others making the floor appear brown, and sometimes even without changing any lighting elements at all Unreal would decide to completely change the colour palette of the scene. It was just a case of getting it as close as we possibly could, because we realised quite quickly that we were never going to get it spot on. There's shadows cast in the wrong places, light sources look too strong and not strong enough in certain spots, and my main issue with it is the change in colour of practically all the textures. All the models we'd made look so accurate have now been changed completely for reasons unknown to us. The floor was probably the biggest let down, as not once did it appear the colour it was supposed to, and what was supposed to tie the scene altogether now screams "I'm wrong" every time I look at it. But we tried our absolute best, and if we could have fixed it I'm sure we would have done during the amount of time we spent fiddling with it, so I remain satisfied with our efforts.</div>
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I learnt a ton from this project. I picked up some experience of organising a small team, and attempting to communicate and synchronise workflow. The asset swap required you to work at a certain pace because we needed to pass assets on to the next person and so on, but this project didn't have prompts like that. It was up to us to assure we go everything done on time, which needed planning and making sure we all worked at a similar pace, something I haven't really had experience with before.</div>
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Another thing was just becoming technically stronger with certain aspects of the modelling process. I explored more to do with PBR, became much better at organising folders in Photoshop (I was dreadfully unorganised before) and got a little experience with Unreal 4, which I now need to explore much further to get a better understanding. All these little developments in my knowledge make me feel good knowing that I've already learnt quite a lot after only a handful of weeks back on the course. I've learnt so much, and feel like I've improved so much already that I can't quite believe we've been here for as little time as we actually have.</div>
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And so we come to the final part, my thoughts on what we'd do better next time if we could. Well, for obvious reasons, I'd make sure I made specific time slots that we all had to be in labs together. I can't even explain how much it helped at times to have one of my team members pretty much with me the whole time I worked in labs, I only wish the other two members had done the same and I think we'd have been so much stronger. I feel like it would also have been a good idea to get everyone's numbers as well, because when Facebook failed, and no one was in labs, a quick text might have got things done a little quicker.</div>
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AND LIGHTING. I mean, I'm saying that we could have done better lighting wise, but all I could have done really was dedicated more time to it. We spent a good 4 days or so doing the lighting, and I now realise that probably wasn't enough, but I'm not sure how we would have given it more time. We could have thrown in an extra day by cutting down modelling time or something, but I'm not entirely convinced an extra day would make all that much difference. We'd have needed a week more for all I know to sort the lighting out to a degree we were happy with, and if we redid the project I know we wouldn't be able to squeeze an extra week of it in. I think I need to do another project with a heavy focus on lighting to get a better jist of how long it takes to sort it out , and then I can base my future schedules and spreadsheet breakdowns on that instead.</div>
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But alas, I must let this go now and move on to the sentry project alone. *sniffles* farewell group work.</div>
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I've realised I said this was going to be short and it's far from it so I shall leave you now with a subtle hint of what is to come regarding my sentry concepts... I LURVVVVV OLD SEWING MACHINES (especially cute toy ones like this)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDqIAB9ua6uF4MOb4YVJ510zsCubWM0SGbE6TFvYigZl0XEHXFbzTwcV_hYl-Z36g_DTk9-EHuB9peCnOeJwni-_FMOewKAKsGSa0EsxEcpNTJUZux-u3ECKY1heYY8CR7oXcvTy85Hhuc/s1600/3b128b20dbb7c3cdebd6a3f20fb1509e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDqIAB9ua6uF4MOb4YVJ510zsCubWM0SGbE6TFvYigZl0XEHXFbzTwcV_hYl-Z36g_DTk9-EHuB9peCnOeJwni-_FMOewKAKsGSa0EsxEcpNTJUZux-u3ECKY1heYY8CR7oXcvTy85Hhuc/s1600/3b128b20dbb7c3cdebd6a3f20fb1509e.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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(https://www.etsy.com/listing/91012351/1940s-kay-an-ee-sew-master-toy-sewing)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-80905931530860024482014-10-29T13:07:00.000-07:002015-03-19T15:17:16.653-07:00The curse of the pink tingeThe final week of the film room project has easily been the most difficult so far. What has begun as a relatively easy start to the year has suddenly plunged me into lighting and engine work, which is seriously not my forte at all. It's frustrating having to let other people sort all the lighting and asset placement out because I'm not adept enough at it yet. And due to us only having a few days to fix the lighting, it's not enough time for someone like me to try and learn all the basics to then sort it myself, when it's so much more efficient to give it to someone who understands it already and can fix it much quicker. I just feel a little inadequate at the moment, but I'm going to try to sort that out in later projects when I'll have more time to work it out for myself.<br />
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All in all, our project outcome is pretty good in my opinion. I'm impressed with what we've achieved in such a short amount of time, but I feel like we'd have been able to push the likeness of the room to the screenshot more had we had a tiny little bit more time. I say we'd have been able to achieve more with more time because I don't believe we could have done much more with it in the time we were allocated. We just didn't have the know-how between us all to get the lighting spot on like we wanted in the 3 weeks provided, it just wasn't enough. It wasn't a lack of time management skills, it was simply a lack of practical skills in general which we can all work on in future projects.<br />
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Anyway, before I ramble on more, I should probably show you the various stages of the lighting before we finally got it as close as we could on the last day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWbwOadwN_DJv8YRfsUSD0_JNIuLE-DvP7CKCsV4aug-RcvnfGEkxNa6hzHDy0Fd5UiKtb_C6VdIs1PW-Cc6V8OEgQbTGniu5DuonYJf_cOF4-cKNaUPFq1kbTbBUUCbN4LD5t3ut_Dmjt/s1600/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWbwOadwN_DJv8YRfsUSD0_JNIuLE-DvP7CKCsV4aug-RcvnfGEkxNa6hzHDy0Fd5UiKtb_C6VdIs1PW-Cc6V8OEgQbTGniu5DuonYJf_cOF4-cKNaUPFq1kbTbBUUCbN4LD5t3ut_Dmjt/s1600/Picture1.jpg" height="346" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is the stage we were at before we had added all assets to the scene, mostly my vases and bottles etc. At this point not all windows had been put in, so the lighting was never going to be completely accurate, however the colours in the scene were as similar to the screenshot as they ever were going to be at this point. It was when we started to add in all the other light sources that things ended up getting a little weird...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiptF3td8a4-zmTvjkLXbB4WxbfdNAZJQDBjVEqHgw0hovFk7EtK5OtTRMZEVV4Js-iI7fmWwmcCSd7tsnIvHS3lsuEv6u9dMInkKo0BiKOcoGUj27JRq0O-qDNMiCZEtJdOY3-rP77gVBK/s1600/Picture2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiptF3td8a4-zmTvjkLXbB4WxbfdNAZJQDBjVEqHgw0hovFk7EtK5OtTRMZEVV4Js-iI7fmWwmcCSd7tsnIvHS3lsuEv6u9dMInkKo0BiKOcoGUj27JRq0O-qDNMiCZEtJdOY3-rP77gVBK/s1600/Picture2.jpg" height="376" width="640" /></a></div>
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A weird pink tinge started to creep over it the more we tampered. At one point, the floor was as far away from the original grey/black as physically possible it seemed, and the walls were turning a shade of pink rather than the red seen in the screenshot. The walls were also reflecting light and making objects around the room a shade of pink, and so the sofa, which should be a pale green, ended up a horrible colour which didn't match at all. The shadows at this point weren't accurate either, especially the ones cast by the blinds. The reason we picked the screenshot was the distinct shadows on the wall with the pictures hung up, and so we were eager to fiddle around some more to get the blinds to cast a harsher shadow on this area.<br />
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I had no idea what was going wrong with the lighting, and so I had to just leave it to my teammates to try and fix, which wasn't really ideal. In the end, they got it as close as they could within the time and it ended up looking much better than when we had first built the lighting. We said goodbye to the pink tinge, and hello to a few new, by less major, issues.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJzUJ8f1A4PewcsqAVkBeNFKW2pVub4AMSY4x7akkuPZSxTWz6CY14Mnc5lyXmDzIqRUkbY8zI73LVvCqMVgnLSDJpodBlnH9Unc1vONBw8ris90T4j6RZS0gVmHGUM2_I9AsRtlSACe8a/s1600/3-+Comparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJzUJ8f1A4PewcsqAVkBeNFKW2pVub4AMSY4x7akkuPZSxTWz6CY14Mnc5lyXmDzIqRUkbY8zI73LVvCqMVgnLSDJpodBlnH9Unc1vONBw8ris90T4j6RZS0gVmHGUM2_I9AsRtlSACe8a/s1600/3-+Comparison.jpg" height="552" width="640" /></a></div>
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So this is the final screenshot up against the original still from the film. I was personally quite happy with the likeness of my textures of most of my assets until they were put in the scene. The lighting has skewed them all slightly, and even though they resemble the objects, they don't look as exact as I'd like them to. The vase right in the foreground on the right is really bugging me. I should have textured the inside of the vase white, as it is in the screenshot, but instead it's come out black and looks quite obviously very different. I'm also not very happy with the sizing and placing of certain objects. The stereo isn't anywhere near big enough, and the vase in the foreground is too big. The brown vase on the table isn't at the right angle to match the screenshot, and the pictures on the wall appear a little too low in comparison to where the screenshot cuts off. I'm disappointed because if I had piped up and said I'd place my own assets, I could have maybe done a more accurate job than what one of my team members had managed. They were rightfully more interested in making sure the placement of their own assets were spot on before they tended to mine, so I should have jumped up and done them myself and made them as accurate as possible. But alas, it was not to be, and I have to say I'm still really pleased with the outcome that we achieved in the amount of time given. In comparison to first year, I've managed to produce so much more in the time frame so I'm happy to see a huge improvement in speed and quality.<br />
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I'll be writing a more detailed post about the comparison of the screenshots in my post mortem in a weeks time, but for now I'm glad to see this project get finished even though I've had quite a lot of fun doing it. It'll be nice to have a little more creative license with the next project though.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-84885891583992580752014-10-22T09:13:00.002-07:002014-10-22T09:13:52.305-07:00Vases 'n' stuffI'm a little bit late with this blog post, but it's just because I've been working on the project and trying to get something pretty to post basically. Having decided I didn't like any of the orthos I had was a bit of a downer, so I decided to re-do them and I feel a little happier with them now. My problem last year was I did something, knew it looked bad, but just left it and didn't try and make it better. So this year I'm making sure I keep going until it looks much better, or else my work standard will end up dropping dramatically.<br />
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Here are some of my orthographic drawings, I won't post all of them because as I'm doing all the little bits and bobs and some aren't particularly interesting, but here are my favourites...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkp0pQiiLUqS5irUcAFcAsaQ3SSs-kG1-_vN5JCUK7LMwEIB1dSMbimkyRLUFGBKKuygaXsW5_qmXw9FP3pUg2ATi-NZeK8oYwznDYWneueam4eC551lN8101nAdVIKiSMXgnvHf9LdJhe/s1600/Vase+1+Orthos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkp0pQiiLUqS5irUcAFcAsaQ3SSs-kG1-_vN5JCUK7LMwEIB1dSMbimkyRLUFGBKKuygaXsW5_qmXw9FP3pUg2ATi-NZeK8oYwznDYWneueam4eC551lN8101nAdVIKiSMXgnvHf9LdJhe/s1600/Vase+1+Orthos.jpg" height="383" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4FO_HvZN-AaZJ0GcVfW7gXfVzpSdoHUoyPr3ElmxXFnw4q5Gcl-mr0IFTeJonnG6XlEwvN9Q4ojypEHpA-7qwOysejXwMIaDEDZ4qM6iwAMdiV-47t4a9eIqMR2BsKakXR1xrtWKuV6Zh/s1600/Vase+2+Orthos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4FO_HvZN-AaZJ0GcVfW7gXfVzpSdoHUoyPr3ElmxXFnw4q5Gcl-mr0IFTeJonnG6XlEwvN9Q4ojypEHpA-7qwOysejXwMIaDEDZ4qM6iwAMdiV-47t4a9eIqMR2BsKakXR1xrtWKuV6Zh/s1600/Vase+2+Orthos.jpg" height="383" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP6fbZeJfL9JqXx8fGjvd9y0oHwHmQQk0IwlAAePzJBzMZdzBdP5BwWa_rWMuOclwH2Z1kiE_Yu1twGRn20RMFiIx5o6n6UOpAWhr78dXeOtPuym5H8oVwI8OVkb3gNA10VkiXiFLw62VY/s1600/Vases_4+5_Orthos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP6fbZeJfL9JqXx8fGjvd9y0oHwHmQQk0IwlAAePzJBzMZdzBdP5BwWa_rWMuOclwH2Z1kiE_Yu1twGRn20RMFiIx5o6n6UOpAWhr78dXeOtPuym5H8oVwI8OVkb3gNA10VkiXiFLw62VY/s1600/Vases_4+5_Orthos.jpg" height="383" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlVh_neBLkc_VtI2S6YhS44G2jMiTiUIKHpCLEmcuhnRkO0Z1ph88ODC9UjZROyT5Ex_tfB2ktMZMc0seS4uWywcfkv8IgJO2smgCnvQiHwGBhfY5C1fkASHY-cP85bkrr74gKE6L2cGV/s1600/Vase+3+Orthos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlVh_neBLkc_VtI2S6YhS44G2jMiTiUIKHpCLEmcuhnRkO0Z1ph88ODC9UjZROyT5Ex_tfB2ktMZMc0seS4uWywcfkv8IgJO2smgCnvQiHwGBhfY5C1fkASHY-cP85bkrr74gKE6L2cGV/s1600/Vase+3+Orthos.jpg" height="383" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFy_xO3gIL3o8-1aRDAaGh7C89J2oZ4Z2JmRvgkPIaH2SC2iHe2Q-1XHwjtjFyGzksi97kFzKKlFpwa42FGUhFrudgtJRd9utxcxcMbpUJwjbGNi96AS_kC-ULP84Kr2D7WGgaXMEMMlbd/s1600/Pictures_Orthos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFy_xO3gIL3o8-1aRDAaGh7C89J2oZ4Z2JmRvgkPIaH2SC2iHe2Q-1XHwjtjFyGzksi97kFzKKlFpwa42FGUhFrudgtJRd9utxcxcMbpUJwjbGNi96AS_kC-ULP84Kr2D7WGgaXMEMMlbd/s1600/Pictures_Orthos.jpg" height="385" width="400" /></a></div>
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I've noticed when painting some of the vases that my rendering has got a little better as I've started getting used to my tablet. I have such a long way to go but I can feel myself improving and it comes with some relief as I always panic that my digital painting will be what lets me down in the end. I just need to keep practicing and perhaps start some personal work to further my experience.</div>
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Here are my models for the film project, which I'm really pleased to have done the 'decorations' for because it meant I could make lot of little cute things yay.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9AL4QntbVDTh2h7ttI__NF_fYzausdUwf4S3Ow44raGru69IYf_vUSSNLDjbtRXKP9wOJhEpgUszZfl2y9xL-OdH5B8sb7A-gptdBhl4mCWRrhBA6iQT-KRURhcc16xwQy2mDvfHMP0Z/s1600/Scene_Props_Screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9AL4QntbVDTh2h7ttI__NF_fYzausdUwf4S3Ow44raGru69IYf_vUSSNLDjbtRXKP9wOJhEpgUszZfl2y9xL-OdH5B8sb7A-gptdBhl4mCWRrhBA6iQT-KRURhcc16xwQy2mDvfHMP0Z/s1600/Scene_Props_Screenshot.jpg" height="328" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-zM5VGfyBpR2Y9rS93Bf7u_-wLfHe31C0mFhwax3NxvxWZP-rO9v_C-QycAZc68pd492-SXAZYv6i_SLhhoAPuDXwo7F8tttiY77nhIzkbB_Osvdqrc8fmqjlwz-pIEEr40QI_o4CLbKN/s1600/Vases_Screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-zM5VGfyBpR2Y9rS93Bf7u_-wLfHe31C0mFhwax3NxvxWZP-rO9v_C-QycAZc68pd492-SXAZYv6i_SLhhoAPuDXwo7F8tttiY77nhIzkbB_Osvdqrc8fmqjlwz-pIEEr40QI_o4CLbKN/s1600/Vases_Screenshot.jpg" height="366" width="640" /></a></div>
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I used the white box Becky made to get the scale right so it was just a case of molding the shapes, which meant it was pretty easy to be honest. The challenge was in the texturing, as half my objects were pretty unclear in the screenshot and so it made trying to copy a texture pretty difficult.</div>
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Oh oh oh and look how super organised I am, I made a spreadsheet. My year 9 IT lessons weren't for nothing, and this way we all managed to keep up to date with deadlines and it just helped with knowing who had finished what and when and what we had to do next. I feel like making spreadsheets for projects is my new calling in life.</div>
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This is just a quick render of the photos for the wall. I managed to find the original photos they used in the film so the image quality of the texture is really high. I had a massive faff trying to get the pictures the right way round and not inverted etc. which is really sad since they should have been the easiest thing to texture, oops. Here's the link if you fancy taking a look at any of the other images used in the film (some are quite creepy, ew) - http://www.everythingscary.com/scary_movie_photos.php?aid=24&mtitle=Hard%20Candy<br />
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In the next couple of days, once this project is officially over, I'll gather up some renders of the scene we made and do a bit of a comparison to the original screenshot. At the moment we're still rushing to get the lighting spot on because at the moment everything is giving off a pink glow for some unknown reason which isn't so fab. I have faith in my group and I know we'll manage it whatever happens.<br />
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In other news, I've decided to go back to the Fantastic Mr Fox painting I started over Summer, and I hope to work into it a little bit more over the weekend.<br />
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I'm excited about this project being finished, and my fox, and the sentry gun project and just life right now, everything is going goooooood. Bring on the next week.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-47961903628948215432014-10-13T14:23:00.000-07:002014-10-13T14:24:08.269-07:00Goodbye Vikings, hello Ellen PageAfter an enjoyable first week, it came the time to finish the Viking scene project. I would like to think I got back into the swing of things pretty quickly, but I found trying to make my texture realistic just as hard as last year, sigh. I think a little more work on that side of things is in order, and thanks to the film project finally getting into full swing, I don't think I'll have to wait too long to get that practice. Before I get into that though, I'll show you the final renders for our asset swap Viking project, which I think turned out pretty well considering there was a bit of miscommunication.<br />
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You've probably noticed that the pig is very very shiny, and that's mainly due to bad communication. If we'd have managed to talk and get the pig earlier than the day the project was due, we'd have been able to sort the problem out in engine and it'd have just look a lot better. But apart from that, there's not much in the scene that screams 'BAD' in my eyes. Sure, the table and bench could have had similar textures, and they both used the same basic wood texture so I'm not sure how they both ended up being completely different colours, but it doesn't stand out too much for me.</div>
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It was my job to texture the shield, and although I'd have liked to do a better job, I didn't really have the time to keep tweaking it, and I'm relatively happy with the overall result anyway. I noticed that once it was imported into Unreal that either the person who modelled it didn't change the smoothing groups, or the smoothing groups just didn't get imported properly, because parts of it were very jagged and oddly shaped. Next time, I'll be sure to check things like smoothing groups, light maps, and pivot points before importing, because it seemed like even the less forgetful people weren't remembering to check everything like that. It was a bit strange to get used to the new map types such as metalness and roughness, but after a little playing around with them I think they're so much more effective. I can tell that if they're used right I think we're going to see some stunning work being produced over the next year. I can say one thing though, RIP to diffuse maps...</div>
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After this experience I can safely say I really enjoy working in a group, even if the project doesn't go quite as smoothly as planned. It brings with it a whole new challenge, which can usually be sorted out with some good planning, and I do rather like a bit of organisation and planning. And so I'm going to attempt to take it upon myself to make sure my group for the film project remain organised and that communication is given lots of importance.</div>
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Now my focus is solely on the film project, and after finding out exactly when the deadline is it's all guns blazing now. I've worked out a spreadsheet system to work out what everyone is modelling and texturing, and given them a budget in which to do so, and by putting this on the Google drive and allowing people to highlight what they've finished we can all keep up to date with what work people are doing even when not in touch with eachother. Our aim is to have all the models done before Friday, so that we can start to put them into engine and have ample time to finish up on the Monday, then sort out design docs and our presentation for the Thursday. I don't want to be leaving anything to the last minute this time and not be able to fix things once they're in engine, so we're working quickly to get it all done early.</div>
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I can't say my team have really been a team the last few days. One of our members has been quite ill which has made it difficult communication wise, but this really can't be helped and I really wish them to get better. And as a whole, I don't think we've been very clear with eachother with how we're expecting to go about the work, and we've had people skipping parts and moving onto other things, so the way we're working isn't exactly systematic. I believe after a few words we've managed to straighten things out though, and we're doing really quite well, and I'm still loving sharing a project with other people.</div>
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I'll be posting updates of the project in the next couple of days when models are finished and begin to be textured. For now though I have an episode of Downton Abbey to catch up on (yes, I'm one of those people) and then it's an early night to be ready for a long day of drawing and modelling tomorrow.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-34761224703995252332014-10-05T14:52:00.000-07:002014-10-13T13:11:00.566-07:00Guess who's back back back, back again...I'm going to be totally honest, I do feel quite bad for not posting over the summer. I mean, I didn't have much to write about apart from the summer project, but I feel like it looks quite sad now having such a long period of inactivity. I can't cry over the blankness forever though, and I'm going to have a go at writing a post at least once a week now. I did attempt to do this last year but got behind on scanning, but this year I'm going to make sure to post an update every Sunday evening, as well as do a few posts here and there during the week when I feel like it. I love writing, so there's gonna' be no excuse not to have this blog full to the brim by the end of the year.<br />
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My first week back here has been a lot better than expected. I mean, I didn't expect it to be terrible but I was a little worried I'd get back and literally remember nothing and fall into a pit of sadness over it. I've been pleasantly surprised though, and I'm really enjoying all the new course content put in place for us. I know as time progresses things are going to get much harder, but for now I'm relatively comfortable in my ability to do what has been asked of us.<br />
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The best part about the week has got to be the start of two group projects. Throughout my time at uni I've found that I'm becoming a social person more and more, and to be given the opportunity to combine skills with other people and make something much better than what I could do alone is brilliant. To put it bluntly, I get to work with cool people and make some pretty cool shit. What is even better is that I was sure that I'd spoken to most people on my course and established all the friendships I would ever have, however now that I'm in a group I've found that this was not the case as I've spoken to new people and made new friendships because of it.<br />
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The first project we were set involves asset swapping, in which we all take turns working on elements of a Viking scene. Unlike many of my game art pals, I don't have a particular interest in Vikings or Viking style objects but I'm excited by the idea of something so different to what we've already done. Never have we had to unwrap an object and take into account that someone else will be texturing it using our unwrap for us. It has completely changed the way I've thought about my work and how I need to make sure I complete things to a standard that someone else would be happy with. I've also found it useful being able to talk to people about the way they work and question why they've done certain things to consolidate my own understanding. At the moment, we're pretty close to being done with this week long project. I've finished texturing my shield and put it into engine, so now we're just waiting on the pig and the bench. Again, another thing I've noticed through this project is how different people are quicker or slower at different aspects of making a model. We have plenty of time left to get the project done and dusted though, so I'm really comfortable with this at the moment.<br />
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(Bench Concept for Asset Swap project - not sure why I made it look so wobbly, whoops)</div>
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I'm also very comfortable and confident in my second group project brief. We've got ourselves into slightly smaller teams of four and we have a pick a room from a film which we're going to model a screenshot of. The idea is that when we're done putting the scene into engine, you should be able to take a render from the same angle as the screenshot and barely be able to see the difference from the original. To me, this project sounds awesome.<br />
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However, it became apparent that it wasn't the easiest task in the world to choose a film collectively. Everyone has their favourite films, and so when we were told to pick one I found that everyone just threw in ideas based on films they loved. Although it'd be cool to do a film we all worshipped, the reality was we didn't all like the same films, and the point was to pick a screenshot for artistic reasons, not because we wanted to pay homage to a favourite of ours. As a film lover, I had so many conflicting ideas to begin. Did we want to do something sci-fi and cool to model? or should we do something realistic and possibly a little dull? As I overheard other groups, I found that almost all were focusing on sci-fi or horror films, which instantly made me want to look for something different. I'd like to say it's only because I wanted to be individual and stray away from the crowd, but it's also because I didn't wanna' accidentally pick the same film as another group and end up making the same scene and risk it being a slightly poorer version of it.<br />
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In the end, a film popped into my head and I thought "BINGO". An Ellen Page classic, 'Hard Candy' is a film I've seen a couple of times and have always admired its cinematography. The whole story takes place in one house, with nearly all the action taking place in the living room, so I thought it'd be perfect for a project which is focusing on rooms which tell a story. I mentioned the idea to my group, and to my surprise no one else had seen it before. They weren't too keen on it when I told them the premise, but a tutor overheard us and he said it was a pretty good idea, which swiftly changed my group's mind, and they promised to watch it that night. Although it's not one of my favourite films, it's pretty up there in my books but because it wasn't a favourite I felt I could look at it and judge it artistically rather than be blinded by my love for it. The next morning, everyone was pretty happy with the choice and agreed it'd be a good one to do since the colours and lighting are really rather interesting. I decided to watch the film again and take screenshots which we might use whilst in the labs, and then another tutor also said it'd be a really good film to do, which boosted my confidence that we'd chosen a good film even more.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;"> (Screenshots from 'Hard Candy')</span><br />
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Then it was judgement day, the morning in which we had to present our ideas to a little audience during a seminar. The first group went up, gave an amazing pitch, and got their idea shot down a little because it was too dark and brown. I don't want to sound all 'goodie goodie' but I personally wouldn't have chosen anything brownish just because I'm a little obsessed with colour (which can be a downfall sometimes), and the fact that the film we had chosen had some good colour contrasts in it gave me hope. But nonetheless, the idea that this amazing presentation by someone so enthusiastic about their film getting crumbled into little pieces worried me to death. However, when it was our turn...they actually liked it. We were safe (for now), and now I've never been more in love with 'Hard Candy' in my life. We have the all clear, so we've begun planning out our scene and trying to find the perfect screenshot, whilst also doing some value studies and picking out a colour palette. My team has been so productive and this has really made me excited for the weeks to come. Next week will be the time we finalise which exact screenshot we're going to model, and then we have a very interesting lesson with Jack later on in the week where we're going to use card to model it before we whitebox and then start doing the 3D side of things.<br />
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(Super quick value studies from a couple of screenshots and colour palette for the film)</div>
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I can feel there's exciting times ahead. I was almost a little sad to see this weekend come around because I'm loving being in the labs with my team members and churning out work. I'm saying this now in the hope it stays like this but no doubt when the work starts piling on I'll be crying for a weekend as free as this one. I've finally got round to playing 'Ni No Kuni' thanks to having some free time though, and I'm so sad it's taken me this long to get round to it because I'm loving it. Perhaps I'll do a post on it sometime soon when I get a little bit further into it.<br />
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This has been the first post of many from my second year at DMU, and I apologise for it being such a long one but a long summer has given me time to conjure up immense enthusiasm for this year and I just want to write about EVERYTHING. But for now, I'll leave you with the trailer for both 'Hard Candy' and 'Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch' if you're interested in having a peek at either of them.<br />
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TrailerZone (2008) <i>Hard Candy Trailer </i>[Online] Youtube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-C2H4ipxz0</div>
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MachinimaTrailer (2013) <i>Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch -- Story Trailer [HD] </i>[Online] Youtube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvqmoSWLXAc</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-72353767606125469322014-04-27T15:47:00.001-07:002014-04-27T15:48:09.378-07:00Art Direction - "Alexis, you ROCK man"As part of my critical studies module for Game Art Design, I have been asked to write up a presentation I produced about art direction which I shared with a small class in a lecture hall a little while ago. I would firstly like to admit now that the whole experience would have made me collapse in a fit of panic had I been asked a couple of years ago, however I rather enjoyed the experience now that my fear of public speaking has died down a little. I believe it was very helpful for us to have to present the way we did in order to begin to let people tackle their fear and see what it might be like to have to present project ideas and such in the future. I really enjoyed watching all the presentations, and learnt a heck of a lot about the art direction in lots of different films, games and artwork, and it was just lovely to see everyone's individual interests when it comes to the art world.<br />
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For my presentation, I chose Alexis Rockman, who is an artist working in New York. I mainly chose him because his work has always inspired me, ever since I began studying him through my GCSEs, but also because I recently watched a lecture he did where he answered a lot of my questions about his work and helped me understand and love his work on an even deeper level than I already had done previously.<br />
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His work is generally based on topics of concern within our society, and mainly how humans abuse the environment and creatures around us, like with genetic mutation, global warming and deforestation. Therefore, his art direction focuses on highlighting these concerns through techniques and choice of imagery. He's also very interested in politics and has numerous works depicting issues with our society politically as well. One of my favourites of these depicts a world map showing horrible moments in human history such as eco-disasters, introduced species and extinctions. By painting these moments in history he is highlighting the issues with them and showing how his art is directed at pointing out the faults in our society.<br />
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One of my favourite things about Rockman's work is its sci-fi feel which doesn't feel too fake. He always gathers reference and research when planning a painting, like game artists do when producing a game, to ensure it is realistic. Often he consults with experts and scientists about the content of his paintings so that they remain as accurate as possible. This means that the futuristic animals and beings you see in his paintings aren't just made up in his head, he has researched and gathered evidence to suggest this is actually what they would look like. It's so important to gather reference and make things seem "real" in games and it's interesting to see that Rockman takes this very same approach.<br />
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Rockman also really likes to experience as much as he can to develop his work, so this means that he does a lot of travelling. I personally feel that experiencing life is the best way to understand how things work and what places are like and generally just get a good idea of how the world works. This is so important when producing a game, because the person who has experienced the most life has to offer is probably going to be the one who produces a more realistic portrayal of it. I believe Rockman thinks in the same way, and has traveled the places such as Guyana, Tasmania and the Amazon in the hope to draw animals from life and experience things for himself.<br />
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He likes to show the big picture in his paintings, and this all stems from how he has attempted to explore the ways in which a painting can beat photography. For example, some of his images depict plants and such cut in half so the insides are visible to the audience, something which a photograph would not be able to show you. Also, he paints a lot of wide paintings which give an almost panoramic feel. By making these conscious decisions to show as much as possible, he is directing his art in a way which allows him to portray his message even more clearly, by showing as much information as possible in one image.<br />
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Rockman likes to use these techniques to show as much as possible of the small creatures that are often overlooked by mankind. He has always had a fascination with rats and the way they live alongside humans without being noticed too much, and shows this fascination of small animals through his work. As game artists, I think it's also important for us to not overlook these small details, because in the end they're what makes an environment feel "real" and often it's the absence of the small things that can make a game not feel quite right to the player.<br />
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Although my favourite works of Rockman's are his paintings, especially "The Farm" which has always seemed to catch my eye whenever I view his work, he is more recently known for his concept work for "Life Of Pi". He produced some watercolours for the film depicting some deep sea creatures and some of the carnivorous island (oops SPOILERS). I just thought it was interesting to see how similar the concepts were to some of the work produced for the reef project which was set recently.<br />
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And finally, one of my favourite characteristics of his work is the subtle humour flowing throughout such a dark subject matter. He has said that Gary Larson is one of his biggest influences, even though their works are not similar in any particular sense apart from the humour. He has shown a great disliking to Disneyland and anything associated with it, and so often shows a futuristic Disney in the corner that has quite frankly been left to rot which playfully shows his distaste for the place in a subtle manner. This also links quite strongly to games for me, as I believe games should attempt to add little hints of humour into their story lines in order to keep people engaged and add just a little bit of lightheartedness to even the most serious of games. The best games are always the ones that made you chuckle when you least expected it.<br />
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I ended my presentation by giving my audience a link to the lecture with Alexis Rockman that I mentioned earlier, and so I shall do no different here, and so if you would like to watch it (which I would highly recommend as it was really interesting) then here you go -<br />
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Overall, I like the art direction and decisions made by Alexis Rockman with his work because everything is done to try and emphasise how we are destroying our planet and causing unnatural things to happen. His work is aimed at portraying a message, and every decision he makes based on technique, image, colour or anything artistic is made with his message in mind. I love his work because it has a purpose which I think is worthwhile, and he directs his art to follow and express this purpose as close as possible and I admire him for that.<br />
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Bibliography -<br />
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Smithsonian American Art Museum (2011) <i>Art and Science Lecture Series with Alexis Rockman </i>[Online] Youtube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUO_bJQMFQs<br />
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Alexis Rockman (2013) [Online] Alexis Rockman. Available from: http://www.alexisrockman.net/Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-24995613185532300232014-04-27T14:23:00.000-07:002014-04-27T14:23:54.182-07:00A fabby fun day at the libraryRecently, a day filled with informative sessions to do with our blogs and writing was held for us in the library, and after taking part that day I have been asked to write a post about the experience.<br />
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I am slightly angered to hear that a very poor percentage of people turned up to the event, when it was organised for us especially and there was the opportunity to really get some great help with our blogs. I'm pretty sure that no one on this course is absolutely perfect when it comes to blog posts, so everyone could have taken something away from the day, and to think lots of people didn't bother is very sad. I like to take all aspects of this course seriously, and by not turning up that day I feel like people weren't doing the same and it's frustrating for the people that try hard, and also for all the tutors. So if anyone reads this that didn't attend then shame on you, you buffoon!</div>
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Anyway, with my little rant over, it's probably best I start off by saying that overall the way the day was set up was very helpful. Each slot of the day had 3 choices of possible sessions to go to, and basically we all picked the session we thought would be the most helpful. I must say I wasn't expecting this and assumed that we'd all have the same sessions based on the overall weaknesses of the group. This was not the case however, and it meant that I felt I was given the freedom to choose what I wanted to spend my day doing and what suited my needs best, and I found this really handy. Not only did this mean that I got a session catered to what I needed help with, but also found myself in groups with people who all struggled with similar aspects as me, often people I hadn't worked with before, so it was good for its social advantages as well.</div>
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As well as this, I enjoyed the content of each session as well. I'm struggling to remember the titles of the sessions I attended, however I remember that one gave me the opportunity to speak to second and third years, another had me writing on plates and referencing correctly, another had me drawing comic strips which was quite a good laugh and my final session was simply putting into practice what I had learnt. I enjoyed every session individually and the day's events as a whole. I also liked the fact each session was with a different tutor and so the day didn't feel samey throughout and I got to talk to lots of people who wanted to help me with my blog writing. Altogether the day was enjoyable, and I feel like the people that didn't turn up actually really missed out on quite a few laughs and a lot of information.</div>
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Finally, I think the best part about the day was the fact that everyone I know that attended came away feeling like they'd taken something from it, which I gather was the whole idea of the day and shows it was a success. I know that the most important bit for me was learning how to reference correctly, as I never had really been shown how and after being given a chunky booklet explaining it all to me and a chat with some people I now have a clear idea. It has made me more confident when writing because I now know that once I've finished waffling on for a good few paragraphs I can reference all the sources I used properly and not have to worry. And everyone who attended the day will have a similar little tale of their new found knowledge I assume, even if it has nothing to do with referencing, which shows how informative it really was.</div>
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Overall, I'd like to thank those who organised the day as it was something a little different for the students to do and really has helped out a lot of people. There were lots of different sessions and all seemed planned very well and with us in mind and there's nothing nicer than to come in and feel like effort has been put in for you. I'm just sorry the effort wasn't mirrored by the students who failed to show their faces, but the day was fab regardless, and I hope we do more of these sorts of things in the future.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-3148486518893421052014-04-27T04:41:00.000-07:002014-10-05T15:13:04.405-07:00GAMES ARE ART, OKAY?! - Personal Enquiry Task 2In my opinion, as was probably gathered in the last task, games have no reason why they cannot be art. If everyone working in the games industry says what they're making is art, then who should question that? There's steps which a game artist has to take, such as picking colours with colour theory in mind, that any painter or someone deemed 'artist' would have to undertake. The steps to creating the final piece is the same between games and paintings, so why is one called art and the other not?<br />
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It's quite clear to me that not everyone is going to be willing to accept games that aren't exactly seen as artistic to be placed alongside some of the world's favourite artists. However, this is irrelevant in itself, because modern art is still seen as art when lots of people don't really agree with it and say it lacks craftsmanship. Making games is a craft though, so I don't understand why it's even more difficult to admit it is a form of art.<br />
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I was interested to see whether there is a place whereby games are officially dubbed an art form, and found an interesting article stating that games are now legally considered art in America. In 2011, the US National Endowment for the Arts included interactive media in the list of possible art forms which could try for a grant, therefore meaning that they know see games as worthwhile art to invest in. Although wonderful news, it still might be a long time before people's opinions change, Just because games are technically an art now in the eyes of higher authorities, it still doesn't mean my nan will ever see them that way.<br />
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A look into the past can tell us that games originated a heck of a long time ago, as electronic games all start from the same basic idea. All games, computer-based or not, come from the need to play. A popular game even today, chess can be traced back to around 550 AD. Since then, many games have all spun off from chess in order to try and improve the game for people. This is a game artist's job, to take something already established as fun, and use their craft to make it even better. The need to improve and succeed is something else I see as being artistic, as a painter with continuously try to improve their work with their audience in mind. Other forms of media are similar, whereby over time the introduction of new materials and developments in their genre has meant an improvement to the outcome. For example, colour TV has improved film to a huge extent, so now a director can use colours to portray moods and the like. Similarly, the introduction of tubed paint meant that painters in Van Gogh's era could produce paintings more easily as their equipment was improved. This is exactly the same with games. Game artists saw the potential of game and the art behind it, and pushed it to become what it is today, immersive and more fun than ever before. I can understand why people didn't see games as an art form in the beginning, when 'pong' was just hitting the shelves and any 'art' was done by the programmers because there wasn't much need for concept art or in depth modelling. But as things have improved, I feel like people have failed to see how stunning games can be.<br />
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Games are art. I don't even think that is me being bias to the subject either, they are genuinely must be otherwise lots of other forms of art, such as film, can't be either. The similarities are so easy to see and I think as years go on more people will accept them. Maybe it's just the new scary kid on the block that needs to get its footing in the art world first, like all other types of media probably did. Until then, I'll keep arguing with my point.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Smithsonian Seriously Amazing (2012) <i>The Art Of Video Games</i> [Online] Smithsonian. Available from: <a href="http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/Details/The-Art-of-Video-Games-840" style="color: #7e3dc6; text-decoration: none;">http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/Details/The-Art-of-Video-Games-840</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Kotaku (2011) <i>This Video May Convince Your Doubtful Friends That Games Can Be Art </i>[Online] Kotaku. Available from: <a href="http://kotaku.com/5853739/this-video-might-convince-your-doubtful-friends-that-games-can-be-art" style="color: #7e3dc6; text-decoration: none;">http://kotaku.com/5853739/this-video-might-convince-your-doubtful-friends-that-games-can-be-art</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The Escapist (2011) <i>Games Now Legally Considered an Art Form (in the USA) </i>[Online] The Escapist. Available from: <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109835-Games-Now-Legally-Considered-an-Art-Form-in-the-USA" style="color: #7e3dc6; text-decoration: none;">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109835-Games-Now-Legally-Considered-an-Art-Form-in-the-USA</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Chess.com (2008) <i>Origins Of Chess</i> [Online] Chess. Available from: <a href="http://www.chess.com/article/view/origins-of-chess" style="color: #7e3dc6; text-decoration: none;">http://www.chess.com/article/view/origins-of-chess</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Technicolor Film <i>Invention</i> [Online] Technicolor Film. Available from: <a href="http://technicolor.umwblogs.org/invention/" style="color: #7e3dc6; text-decoration: none;">http://technicolor.umwblogs.org/invention/</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Smithsonian (2013) <i>Never Underestimate The Power Of A Paint Tube </i>[Online] Smithsonian. Available from: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-paint-tube-36637764/?no-ist= [Accessed 01/12/13].</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-14861519919071602662014-04-26T10:11:00.000-07:002014-04-26T10:35:52.669-07:00ROADTRIPThis is basically a post all about my future, and how I hope to achieve and gain all the skills needed in order for me to be successful in the games industry (the scary stuff). I've picked a developer which I have been in awe and a huge fan of since I was a child, and I would go as far as to say they're probably the reason I want to be in this business. Of course, I'd love to work anywhere, but if I had to pick my dream job, it'd definitely be working for Naughty Dog, the developers of my favourite all time game Jak and Daxter, and, more recently, the critically acclaimed Last Of Us. Naughty Dog seem to encompass everything I find so enchanting about the idea of being a games artist. They produce big titles which receive adoration all over the world, they've developed games for the consoles I have grown up with, and I like their overall work ethic and how they have produced a diverse range of games throughout their success. I want to be in this business because I've been given so many memories playing games, and Naughty Dog happens to have produced the games I have the happiest memories with. I would like to share this same experience and smiles with other people some day, hence why I want to produce games for the next generation to play.<br />
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The next few years is in fact like a roadtrip with the final destination hopefully being my ideal career, and in order to keep driving in the right direction I need to develop a roadmap so I can work on the right skills I'll need to have mastered by the time I intend to start a job in the industry. This is where Naughty Dog come in, as I have looked at their careers page and decided to use a current job listing to identify the abilities needed in order to work for them, so that I know what is expected, and so I'm up to scratch when going to apply for jobs anywhere in the industry, not just developers like Naughty Dog.<br />
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I have to admit that as of now I'm not entirely sure what area I want to go into. I feel like I'm more comfortable with visual design, but I'm aware that I'm not as strong with it as others around me so whether I would be able to get a job focusing on just that element might not be realistic, and so I'm remaining open to whatever I find myself excelling at (with the hope that there will be at least ONE thing that I do excel at eventually). This has meant that I've just looked at a number of jobs advertised by Naughty Dog which should give me a nice overall sense of what is expected and will list skills that I would imagine most other careers in the industry would be looking for.<br />
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One of the things that stands out to me to begin with is the "deadline orientated" trait which I'd like to think I have acquired for the most part through my art A level deadlines and now furthermore with this course itself. I'm used to have time limits and such when it comes to my work, and I actually really enjoy the pressure and stress of trying to get things done in time, which sounds odd but I've learnt to embrace it I think. I nearly always meet deadlines, granted I could do better, but I'd like to think this is something on the list I'm pretty close to getting towards.<br />
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"Good communication skills" is another which I feel I might be a little closer to than some which are listed. Being completely honest, talking to people was never really my forte growing up. I panicked in situations where I had to speak to people and felt uncomfortable talking to anyone I wasn't used to. After suffering with it and possibly losing out on opportunities because of it, I made a point of trying to help myself and now I'd like to think I have grown out of it a bit. I'm still not the most confident, but after coming to uni I have found it much easier than I expected to talk to people and I get on well with all of my classmates and this reassures me to think that I'm definitely going in the right direction. Even my family have noticed a difference in me confidence wise, and so I believe if I keep trying hard that my communication skills could be as good as any career would need.<br />
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Now to talk about the things I don't feel so comfortable with... "strong artistic ability" and "an exceptional understanding of form, shape, structure and silhouette" are definitely skills I do not have as of yet. They are things I'm hoping to pick up with time. At the moment, I'm doing my all to try and learn the techniques which will make my designs and images much stronger. I've been told that my digital painting skills need a lot of work, as it's affecting my texture painting quite a lot. It's quite understandable though, as I had never used a graphics tablet before coming to this course, and admittedly have avoided it pretty much all of this year as well as I wanted to sharpen up my traditional skills before stepping into the unknown. However, now I realise I really need to just throw myself into all types of art, including digital, in order to develop all the skills I'll need for the future. At this moment, I don't have an exceptional understanding of any of the above, but I feel like I'm on my way as I already see a huge improvement after just after a couple of terms being here. I've made more of an improvement in this short amount of time than I did through the whole of my school and sixth form college life. Therefore, in terms of my road map, I need to continue improving at this rate and perhaps even moreso and really get to grips with texture painting in order to transfer my art skills onto my 3D models.<br />
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"Self-motivation" is another characteristic talked about, and this is something I believe I have but you can almost never have enough of either. I want to do as well as I can, I feel I have a lot to prove to myself and others who thought I wasn't good enough, and so my motivation to finish work to a high standard and do well on this course is extremely high. Motivation is something you can lose quite quickly though, and this has always worried me because in the past I have found myself not feeling particularly motivated, but at this particularly moment, and all throughout this course so far, I've kept my motivation and just hope I can for the future. To help with this though, I plan to do lots of work over Summer, including projects not necessarily linked to games, but things I enjoy so that I can still be helping my skills develop but exploring other types of art and hopefully maintaining my enthusiasm for when I begin again in year 2.<br />
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As a whole, my road map consists of just working hard and making the most of what this course has to offer me. I plan to continue to teach myself skills whilst being helped along by the tutors, and hopefully I'll work out the direction I want to take my career as I begin to develop further as a game artist. From now on, I'm throwing myself into everything to make sure I don't miss out on learning even one teeny bit of information or skill. Most of all, I just hope I can continue to keep surprising myself with how well I've adapted and learnt through this course.<br />
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A special thanks to Naughty Dog for inspiring me so much through my childhood.<br />
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Naughty Dog Careers (2014) <i>Current Jobs</i> [Online] Naughty Dog. Available from: http://www.naughtydog.com/site/careers/environment_model_layout_artist/Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-35380957868975358782014-04-19T01:28:00.000-07:002014-04-28T01:29:09.095-07:00Games as an art form - Personal Enquiry Task 1Games have been around for years and years and are one of the earliest forms of design, communication and expression. Games have always had to be designed with artistic judgement, whether a computer game or not.<br />
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Games are beginning to become even more artistic as time has gone on thanks to recent indie games which let a person explore content and ideas that mainstream doesn't in a beautiful way. They push the boundaries of what is seen as the norm for a game, and also what is expected visually from a game, and so we now have games whereby the art style is a core element of helping the narrative and idea behind the game. For example Minecraft, which is pixelated and blocky so that customisation is encouraged.<br />
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Art as a whole is just what someone has created with a visual element to it. I don't ever argue that some of this pretty crazy modern art isn't 'art' because the person that created it says it is so that's what it is. It's like when you have a baby, you name it bob and then your aunt tells you she doesn't really think it's a bob, but that doesn't mean she goes round calling him anything else. A person has the right to label what they have created as anything they want really because it's theirs, and I don't understand why people feel the need to argue with that. And also, if one more person says "that's rubbish, I could even do that" to one more bit of modern art I'm going to shout "WELL YOU DIDN'T" as many times as is needed for them to understand.<br />
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I don't know how similar a game is technically to a piece of artwork by a painter for example, however I'm sure links can be made. A game thinks about colours and composition, just like a painting would. They also pick images or environments to tell a story or give a mood, thinking about the lighting and atmosphere when doing so, which is what a traditional painter would do also. Games even take their audiences in mind and how the work is going to affect them, which a painter would think about also, creating the art with the people in mind who are going to view it. So really, games and artwork are more similar than people seem to think they are, with traditional art simply being a building block in the overall construction of a game.<br />
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It frustrates me also that lots of people now openly consider film and other forms of media as being an art form, and not games. I don't understand what it is about a game that people can't see is artistic, apart from maybe the typical "KILL ALL THE THINGS" storylines that get churned out. But this is similar to films, which have their usual stories which everyone thinks are so cliche and boring, and yet as a whole they are considered an art form. Games nowadays are very similar to film in the sense that the stories are extremely cinematic and moving in comparison to what they used to be, almost being like an interactive film that you control the lead role for. Perhaps it's just because games are a newer form of art, having not been around for as long as films have, and this could mean potentially people are just warming up to the fact that games are in fact a form of art.<br />
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Bilbiography -<br />
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PBS (2011) <i>Video Games/Off Book/PBS </i>[Online Video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ERL20lr1U#t=361Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-82411945140370852842013-12-02T00:45:00.007-08:002014-10-05T15:12:24.897-07:00Computer Games History Personal Enquiry - Are games art?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">If
I were just going on the basis of my own personal opinions, I would say yes,
games are art. I believe anything that is created and/or deemed art by the
person who created it means that it is in fact art. I don't believe anyone</span>
gains anything from suggesting to others that what they have made isn’t art,
because I don’t understand how to you can tell someone that what they’ve made
isn’t the thing they intended it to be. So if I apply this theory to games, they
must surely be art if people on the team are labelled ‘artist’. I’m also sure
the creators would argue their own case that what they’ve made is art after they
had spent copious hours thinking about things like colour theory, just as a
painter would.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 115%;">However,
of course I know that not everyone will jump on my bandwagon of accepting the
fact games like ‘Call Of Duty’ could be placed alongside the artistry of ‘Van
Gogh’, but I’m here to state my point. In
an attempt to convince the non-believers, I found a very recent part of gaming
history to reveal that games are now ‘legally’ considered art in America. In
2011, the US National Endowment for the Arts included interactive media in the
list of possible art forms which could try for a grant, meaning that by
allowing games to receive art grants they are therefore affirming that they are
a type of art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 115%;">Legalities
or not, people will always have their own view regardless, and so perhaps a
look into the past may well describe how art, and more specifically artistic
change has flowed through games since their conception. But where is the start
of games? Of course, I have discussed the beginning of video games in previous
posts, but surely all games, even the interactive giants we see today, came
from the basic idea of playing. Chess, with its footing in popular culture for
many many years now, found its origins in 550 AD. Competition, and the will to
win comes from way prior to this though, and mankind’s nature to win is where
all types of games and play come from. You want to achieve your goal, and you
want to succeed in winning, even if it’s just you against the game. So here we see an immediate need for
improvement, in terms of someone feeling like they’re winning. Games and video
games especially, want to give the player the best possible experience in order
for them to come away and feel that immense sense of achievement, and in simple
terms, that they had fun. The great art of games is the way a developer tries
to enhance this experience for the player using all sorts of techniques such as
creative stories, relatable characters, immersive landscapes etc. Is this not
the same as what a film or a piece of artwork tries to do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 115%;">You
could compare how the artistry of gaming has in fact improved in a similar way
to film and traditional art. However, this is not to say that older films, and
the painters of centuries ago weren’t as good as the ones today, because even
with games we know that a good ol’ classic now and again is rather refreshing.
The artistry has improved due to the development of better tools. If you take
the example of film, the invention of ‘Technicolor’, and its perfection in 1932
meant that people would no longer have to watch their world with an unfamiliar lack of vibrancy, but instead could see it with colour and feel totally immersed
within it. The same sort of invention helped the art world move forward, with
the introduction of paint tubes in 1841 which made it much easier
for artists to apply thicker layers of paint and choose colour more
spontaneously due to having no restrictions from mixing pigments as they went.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Vincent Van Gogh (1889) <i>The Starry Night </i>[Online Image]. Available from: </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">www.wikipaintings.org</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 115%;">Gaming
has developed in a very similar way, but more notably through graphics more than
anything else. As new mediums in which to play games were developed, much more complex software was available in order to model and programme
games. During the years that ‘Pong’ and ‘Pac-Man’ ran the show, graphics were
limited to what now seems like a teeny tiny amount of pixels, showing no 3D
form whatsoever and using a very basic colour palette. As games moved on, graphical
tools improved. 3D wasn’t a thing of the distant future anymore, and along with
the 90s generations of consoles, became something that wasn’t rare to see
within a game. Colour palettes expanded, and instead of using a few basic primary
colours, developers could choose relatively large specific sets which would fit
the mood of the game and its environment. Basically, games went from chunky
square blocks running around sickly coloured worlds to games where you feel
like the characters have more interesting features than you do. These changes
and developments which have happened in such a short space of time have allowed
for beautiful games to be created, and truly immerse players within worlds,
enhancing experiences just like other forms of art have done so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Pong (1972) <i>Pong Gameplay </i>[Online Image]. Available from<i>: </i>www.noyouare.lixlink.com</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (2011) <i>Skyrim Gameplay </i>[Online Image] Available from: www.bit-tech.net</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 115%;">Games
are art. They create places for people to run away to and visuals which a
player interacts with, just like you’d interact with a painting in a gallery by
talking about it. Games draw you into the story, just like a film does. I feel
like games are a culmination of art forms such as music, visual art, literature
etc. and that’s why people are scared to pinpoint it down as art because it’s
not quite any of the categories. I believe games should be their own category;
it’s just the baby of other art forms waiting to find its feet and become as
socially accepted as others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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now, if you still don’t agree with me, I’ll leave you with this video, I found
it rather interesting and relevant.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/w0ERL20lr1U?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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PBS (2011) <i>Video Games/ Off Book/ PBS </i>[Online Video]. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w0ERL20lr1U</div>
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Bibliography -</div>
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Smithsonian Seriously Amazing (2012) <i>The Art Of Video Games</i> [Online] Smithsonian. Available from: <a href="http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/Details/The-Art-of-Video-Games-840">http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/Details/The-Art-of-Video-Games-840</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</div>
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Kotaku (2011) <i>This Video May Convince Your Doubtful Friends That Games Can Be Art </i>[Online] Kotaku. Available from: <a href="http://kotaku.com/5853739/this-video-might-convince-your-doubtful-friends-that-games-can-be-art">http://kotaku.com/5853739/this-video-might-convince-your-doubtful-friends-that-games-can-be-art</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</div>
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The Escapist (2011) <i>Games Now Legally Considered an Art Form (in the USA) </i>[Online] The Escapist. Available from: <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109835-Games-Now-Legally-Considered-an-Art-Form-in-the-USA">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109835-Games-Now-Legally-Considered-an-Art-Form-in-the-USA</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</div>
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Chess.com (2008) <i>Origins Of Chess</i> [Online] Chess. Available from: <a href="http://www.chess.com/article/view/origins-of-chess">http://www.chess.com/article/view/origins-of-chess</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</div>
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Technicolor Film <i>Invention</i> [Online] Technicolor Film. Available from: <a href="http://technicolor.umwblogs.org/invention/">http://technicolor.umwblogs.org/invention/</a> [Accessed 01/12/13].</div>
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Smithsonian (2013) <i>Never Underestimate The Power Of A Paint Tube </i>[Online] Smithsonian. Available from: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-paint-tube-36637764/?no-ist= [Accessed 01/12/13].</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-11769222720593928072013-11-29T09:15:00.000-08:002013-12-01T22:53:23.608-08:00Gurus and Grasshoppers - A plank of wood with twisty bitsHaving spent a couple of days in the labs, I've managed to whip up a model for the project my gurus set me, and I have to say I'm relatively happy with how it has gone. Coming in at 789 tris, I managed to creep pretty close to my budget of 800 with still a few tris to spare. It definitely wasn't easy to make, probably due to my twirly wirly design you can see in my concept sketches, but nevertheless I wanted to keep that characteristic and so this is my attempt at trying to model my Art Nouveau style bow.<br />
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The renders aren't of ideal quality, but I zoomed in a little on the second so you can see the wood texture. Although it doesn't scream ART NOUVEAU, I'm happy with what influence you can see within it, and I particularly like the fact it gives of the sense that it's all made of wood, but that's just personal taste. The flower on the front was a particular pain. It was difficult to make it look natural within the tri limit that I had, and in the end I feel like you can just about tell it's a flower. The mesh is far neater than my building project's was, and so in that respect I couldn't be happier, since that was such an issue before. I used a bump map for the wood texture, but it doesn't appear to be particularly clearly visible. When I speak to my gurus next I'll ask if they can help me with my rendering so that more definition is seen on my images, especially the bump map. All in all I'm happy though, and I really did enjoy making this. I feel like I've come such a long way from when I modelled my bin, because back then I needed help at every stage but I practically did this project without consulting with anyone for help. This little project overall just made me feel rather independent and like I knew what I was doing, and I enjoyed that.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-2604982440877994722013-11-26T10:36:00.000-08:002013-11-26T10:36:37.188-08:00Gurus and Grasshoppers - I love bows, bows love meFor my first ever brief set by my gurus, I have been tasked to make a textured weapon of my choice using less than 800 tris. This seemed easy enough to me, until I went and over-complicated things for myself and decided I wanted to make a bow with an Art Nouveau influence. It didn't sound too hard in my head, but when it came down to doing it I realised that I have trouble making anything look natural in 3ds max, and the whole point of Art Nouveau is to incorporate a natural feel into the design...you see my issue. However, I'm persevering with it since I want to make something in a style I like, and also because it's a guru project so I'm sure they'll go easy on me. I wanted to challenge myself now and then perhaps acquire new skills I can then use in properly assessed projects. As my model isn't finished yet, I thought I'd give you a little sneaky look at some of my designs that I jotted down quickly using some reference images to do with Art Nouveau.<br />
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Hopefully I'll be done with this little project very shortly so I can post the results of my venture into weapon modelling here. I don't even think I've ever really designed a weapon or anything of this sort before, not even a doodle, so it's nice to try something new for a change.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-44383749840208683582013-11-24T07:19:00.002-08:002014-04-02T07:21:07.219-07:00Computer Games History Part 3 - The time when Sony whooped everyone else's buttI think it's quite obvious just by my title that I'm a fan of the Playstation and just Sony in general. But like a lot of the big consoles developers in gaming today, Sony found its origins back in the 90s when gamers were treated to new consoles which had superior graphics, hardware and gameplay to anything anyone had seen before.<br />
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The 1990s tends to be remembered for its production of far too many not so good consoles that ended up at the back of the shelf, and a large amount of add-ons which pushed other hardware of almost the exact same style out into gaming heaven. The two big players which struck up a rivalry right at the beginning of the 90s were Nintendo and Sega. Both boasted superior hardware to all other systems trying to grab a spot at the top at an affordable price, and even today Nintendo's SNES is considered by some one of the best consoles ever made, probably due to most of the competition at the time, such as the Commodore 64 Games System, not even coming close to its capabilities. But even though both were doing so well, and practically dominated the market, Sony plonked itself right at the top with it's incredible new console the Playstation.<br />
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Commodore (1990) <i>Commodore 64 Games System </i>[Online Image]. Available from: en.wikipedia.org</div>
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Sony (1994) <i>PlayStation </i>[Online Image]. Available from: www.telegraph.co.uk</div>
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There was a quick change to CD-ROM discs once they had gained popularity through music and the like, and so games started to head towards the same format, which may have added to Sony's success. Not only did a CD-ROM have a good audio and graphics storage potential, but its wide spread use at the time made it cost effective to use, and completely shifted the way games were produced. 3D graphics and voice acting were just a couple of things which went from being rarely used within games to being a integral part. This meant the 90s became the most technologically diverse decade ever, with some games still stuck in an arcade format, and others rising up to become similar to the 3D emersive experiences we see today.<br />
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The main thing the Playstation got oh so right was its diverse range of games. They used the contacts they had got whilst working to manufacture a sound chip for SNES console, and managed to get 400 game developers to produce a title for their console. Not only that but the Playstation was powerful, cheap and easy to programme for, so game developers were more than happy to produce titles for the system.<br />
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Examples of some of my personal favourite Playstation games just to give a brief view of the type of games the system offered -<br />
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Sony (2000) <i>Crash Bash</i> [Online Image]. Available from: www.giantbomb.com</div>
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Sony (2000) <i>Spyro: Year Of The Dragon </i>[Online Image]. Available from: www.nitroroms.com</div>
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Electronic Arts (2000) <i>007 The World Is Not Enough </i>[Online Image]. Available from:<i> </i>www.giantbomb.com</div>
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I believe it's clear today to see just how much influence Playstation had. The fact we're now onto the Playstation 4 in itself shows just how successful it really was and how much of an important part of gaming history it was. It literally went from zero to hero, and I just love an underdog don't you? I also think it's interesting to point out that the market will always be open to an underdog taking over. Microsoft did a similar thing when creating the Xbox and making it such a commercial success as to now having kept up with Playstation and are now releasing their Xbox one. So perhaps, one day there will be a new company which makes its way up into the ranks of the big three which we have now, and goes from zero to hero just like the Playstation did. It's always possible.<br />
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Bibliography -<br />
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Games Radar (2013) <i>Chasing Phantoms - The History Of Failed Consoles </i>[Online] Games Radar. Available from: <a href="http://www.gamesradar.com/chasing-phantoms-history-failed-consoles/">http://www.gamesradar.com/chasing-phantoms-history-failed-consoles/</a> [Accessed 22/11/13]<br />
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Video Game Console Library <i>Sony PlayStation - DW FACTS</i> [Online] Video Game Console Library. Available from: <a href="http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-playstation.htm#page=reviews">http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-playstation.htm#page=reviews</a> [Accessed 22/11/13]Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-22861340090761902632013-11-23T07:56:00.007-08:002013-11-23T07:57:06.781-08:00Computer Games History Part 2 - Arcades and their struggle to cling on for dear lifeArcades aren't really what first comes to mind now for our generation of gamers when anything computer related is mentioned. Games nowadays are references to the newest release on the 3DS, or the supposed title coming out next year for the PS4. Perhaps if I spoke to my dad he might tell me about the 'Golden Age' of arcade games which found its way in the late 70s into the 80s with releases such as Pac-Man, but I myself can only admit to entering an arcade a few brief times in my life now that age is over, and instead find myself at home in my room playing what seem to be superior games.<div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Pac-man (Image courtesy of <span class="irc_ho" dir="ltr" style="margin-right: -2px; overflow: hidden; padding-right: 2px; text-overflow: ellipsis;">www.tophostgames.com)</span></span></div>
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The decline of the arcade has a number of factors contributing to it, and often the main factor is attributed to the rise of home consoles. However to begin, I think it'd be nice to highlight the most popular advances in the gaming world regarding arcades, as without them we probably wouldn't have then had the future development into games we have today. A huge title to pave the way for other games was Atari's 'Space Invaders' released in 1978, which even today is still seen as an icon in the gaming world. You can type in 'Space Invaders' onto any internet browser now and have multiple links to allow you to play it right from the very comfort of your office chair. So it's safe to say the game is most certainly not forgotten, but I can't help feeling like it will rarely ever be played now how it was intended to be played. The whole point of an arcade was to be social, to play against someone who was stood shoulder to shoulder with you, and have other friends crowded round trying to watch. If you just play it sat down in your room, you're kind of missing the point right? Or are games something which should have the option of being something you play alone or in a group? And if that's the case, then that could contribute to the decline in arcades, because they just lacked the privacy people might have wanted every once in a while whilst playing a game. I know for certain I wouldn't want to play Skyrim in a room full of people because it's engaging in the way you play it alone, and one time I did try to play it with friends in the room and they constantly asked me why people kept repeating the same line of dialogue to me and my experience was pretty much ruined.</div>
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Space Invaders (Image courtesy of www.scottdecker.com)</div>
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Nintendo's release of Donkey Kong in arcades came along not long before the decline started to be noticed. Arcades had become a huge part of popular culture, and people loved the fact that they could play new releases on high-tech machines just by having a pocket full of change. However, with Nintendo and the like bringing out consoles such as the NES in the mid 80s, people flocked back to their homes and decided to invest time in playing without the need of inserting coins continuously, which meant the consoles were more cost-effective in the long-term. Cost is always going to be a big thing in our society, so long as there's money, there will be people trying to spend as little of it as possible. So it's no wonder that people decided playing at home would be much better for their pockets once better consoles were produced.</div>
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On the run up to the 90s, arcades fought back for a while by introducing side-scrolling fighting games. Along with this, game gimmicks such as light guns which had people shooting zombies from 'House Of The Dead' using something very much new and exciting to a usual joystick. But with time, it was obvious home gaming would catch onto these and start incorporating their own, and we still see such peripherals today in consoles such as the Wii. So no matter what arcade games did, home gaming would always catch up, and so the decline started to take full form.</div>
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Light Gun (Image courtesy of www.pixelgate.co.uk)</div>
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Wii Zapper (Image courtesy of www.technabob.com)</div>
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I find it interesting to think that cinema has had the same sort of issues regarding decline because of availability at home. Between the 60s and 80s, cinemas were struggling to keep people coming to watch films, as it became a done thing to rent a film and make a night out of it at home once the VHS became widely available. It was only through new advances, like with arcades, that cinema found its way back up again and now 3D films are drawing in more and more customers. Going to the cinema now feels like a special occasion. If there's a film you really want to see, you go to the cinema for the experience of it to see it on the biggest screen available with the best sound quality you can have. Home cinema is something people buy into, but nothing will ever match up to the cinema experience and so people will still keep going. This is why arcades suffered their fate when cinemas didn't, because an arcade cannot offer anything better than what a person can get at home anymore, which is rather sad but does not make their importance in game history any less memorable.</div>
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Bibliography -</div>
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<a href="http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a328858/feature-the-rise-and-fall-of-arcade-gaming.html">http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a328858/feature-the-rise-and-fall-of-arcade-gaming.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/16/3740422/the-life-and-death-of-the-american-arcade-for-amusement-only">http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/16/3740422/the-life-and-death-of-the-american-arcade-for-amusement-only</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/6693/business/cinema-attendance-in-uk/">http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/6693/business/cinema-attendance-in-uk/</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-28118699126700483502013-11-22T04:55:00.002-08:002013-11-22T05:01:08.842-08:00Visual Design Week 8 - Nostalgia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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During my A levels, for basically my entire 2nd year I chose to do Cubism, which involved a lot of still life drawing, so you can imagine how happy I was to know that that was this week's drawing task. I mean I'm not very good at it, please don't think that and expect ridiculously good drawings because that isn't happening, but it just feels a little bit safer than perspectives and landscapes and all that other stuff. However, similarly to my issue with week 7, I don't have the images yet and so you're going to have to settle with more of my life drawing again and I'll get to posting the other stuff as soon as possible.<div>
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The starter drawings this week were much the same as the week before, with the inclusion of some tone to create a bit of form. The study above, on the right, is probably my favourite of this type that I have produced so far. I don't think the proportions are anywhere near correct, but I feel like including the negative space around the figure has helped lift it somewhat and it looks a little interesting than the others I have produced. I didn't do anything differently, I just think the pose and perhaps the way the light fell on the figure helped.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL6XDWJI_a9BMr0i8_giyOium78pklYUkVqie_oLEvmyOI4knVJD8wOV5E-SlHznqJgcMIhP5l7MUuYPxT7h0kIpLjv5sWQBWhlgGDHAImvTnp0aBDIUO8XPYpggOWqLRq386y4z18e0h0/s1600/DSC_0222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL6XDWJI_a9BMr0i8_giyOium78pklYUkVqie_oLEvmyOI4knVJD8wOV5E-SlHznqJgcMIhP5l7MUuYPxT7h0kIpLjv5sWQBWhlgGDHAImvTnp0aBDIUO8XPYpggOWqLRq386y4z18e0h0/s640/DSC_0222.jpg" width="358" /></a></div>
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The two charcoal studies above were supposed to be my great leap into trying to improve the one I did last week, however I think I fell short a bit and actually I still prefer the one I did originally. The one directly above is perhaps a little smoother, but the tone is less effective, and I got the proportions all wrong and made the torso far too long. I think I found the pose difficult but assumed it wouldn't be because I was side on to the model and didn't have to deal with foreshortening or anything too hard. The one above that is just quite messy in general, and the complete opposite of trying to be smooth. Also, there is a particularly dark tone around the neck, which doesn't seem right considering there are probably much more shadowed areas of the body that I could have shaded darker. All in all, even though they are better than I expected myself to do, I don't see me improving from my initial drawing much.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-67873471210098275802013-11-22T04:25:00.002-08:002013-11-22T04:25:23.342-08:00Visual Design Week 7 - OH NO not cars!After a relatively relaxing employability week during week 6, week 7 just so happened to be the most difficult drawings we had done to date, which is understandable considering we need to be progressing. Cars are something I have avoided like the plague since I began drawing, and I honestly cannot recall the last time I attempted one. This is definitely a mistake on my part, because now I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of skill. I am trying my very best though, and sadly you cannot see these efforts as of yet because I haven't gathered the images yet to post here, and so you will have to deal with my slightly more successful sketches which I did during my life drawing class.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH2NKkwhVxzLenMrakRQZ2-cFQwWS7KxnGSNJyFIHMb4rBJMospMOOyR7OtWFEQdpbCV2zlTHLJZTs6zHOGjEGPyHWjJ7g_P1Q1hqd4Xx3vONN13J06BaCDFWf3Sn3MIyjiWbUgKY70aQb/s1600/DSC_0218.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH2NKkwhVxzLenMrakRQZ2-cFQwWS7KxnGSNJyFIHMb4rBJMospMOOyR7OtWFEQdpbCV2zlTHLJZTs6zHOGjEGPyHWjJ7g_P1Q1hqd4Xx3vONN13J06BaCDFWf3Sn3MIyjiWbUgKY70aQb/s640/DSC_0218.jpg" width="388" /></a></div>
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The pages above are mainly just filled with the usual left-handed quick drawings etc. However, if you notice the ones on the second page you'll see a slight inclusion of tone, which is a first for the warm up sketches. The idea was to try and draw the figure and get a basic idea of tone in just 2 minutes, which was new for me since I had never applied tone in such a rush before. I enjoyed it though, and feel like the sketches come to life even after just a quick 30 second shade.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaCkHVn1ZH7XeAcZjYf6-hSogd8OLxii6cph42Pehgeu9uPmaSJHNJRYCiZQ3cpB0M-4kMsXd8txRaA8iyO3kV4wBwIWnB-Nsn4LjODYgZVoR2cqO0B67hbpkU_aiOQidayFuv87RiwZP/s1600/DSC_0225.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaCkHVn1ZH7XeAcZjYf6-hSogd8OLxii6cph42Pehgeu9uPmaSJHNJRYCiZQ3cpB0M-4kMsXd8txRaA8iyO3kV4wBwIWnB-Nsn4LjODYgZVoR2cqO0B67hbpkU_aiOQidayFuv87RiwZP/s640/DSC_0225.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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I'm particularly pleased with the piece above, as I had done drawings using charcoal and the rubbing out technique and before they had turned out dreadful, so anything was going to be an improvement I can assure you. The idea is to prep the large sheet of paper with a mid-tone of charcoal, and then spend around 10 minutes rubbing out and trying not to produce an outline, and then spending 10 minutes going over and filling in the darker areas in charcoal. Although awfully messy, I feel this technique produces relatively nice looking drawings even when you haven't done it proportionately correct. I have been told I need to work on producing work which looks smoother, as I have a tendency, especially with charcoal, to scribble in the tones and never really blend. This means the softness of the skin isn't shown, and so I need to work on being more subtle and producing a rounder looking form.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-4836955266256772952013-11-22T04:08:00.000-08:002013-11-22T04:08:35.609-08:00Visual Design Week 5 - Dinosaurs are cool, end ofWeek 5 was as pleasantly lovely as the trip to Bradgate park was, mainly due to seeing dinosaur bones but also just going to a museum in general. I like the feel of museums and how there's so many old things all sitting in modern glass cases and it's all just rather pretty really. I also felt relatively happy drawing the bones, as it didn't require the same amount of attention to setting up perspective as the previous weeks had done, so I was sort of back in my comfort zone. In saying that, I feel I could have probably produced more exciting drawings in the end considering I quite enjoyed doing them.<br />
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But obviously, first of all I had my usual life drawing class back to normal again, so here's all the work from there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKo9dIrOOi9mEsAo4-F3lHa8GSE76NIZl7amz0EmAMZL4HGLMUj07AysBHI_SSA-f8Gl6TQWBG3RI6yke1p_gYnQPd3Bm2lenuhFXOAwsdEosJ3s6Yfzh-M3AurWxtIG3CIxGkJnZmYvm1/s1600/DSC_0214.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKo9dIrOOi9mEsAo4-F3lHa8GSE76NIZl7amz0EmAMZL4HGLMUj07AysBHI_SSA-f8Gl6TQWBG3RI6yke1p_gYnQPd3Bm2lenuhFXOAwsdEosJ3s6Yfzh-M3AurWxtIG3CIxGkJnZmYvm1/s640/DSC_0214.png" width="424" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBuWCrxwuv6g-3jtgzQTmOef5pF4uO-OU0MKZ09I1YMTZIXPSpHqu2FdhyGJk_EO4GWS6VBwkeCxExH6dfrJqy6Vq17eQuEbrN3Qm4KGV1Xa3Bb4EHto-9oigYMRgcy3RNFumRD9mfq0sv/s1600/DSC_0215.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBuWCrxwuv6g-3jtgzQTmOef5pF4uO-OU0MKZ09I1YMTZIXPSpHqu2FdhyGJk_EO4GWS6VBwkeCxExH6dfrJqy6Vq17eQuEbrN3Qm4KGV1Xa3Bb4EHto-9oigYMRgcy3RNFumRD9mfq0sv/s640/DSC_0215.png" width="500" /></a></div>
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The two pages of studies above, not including the one in pencil on the first page, are all studies done outside of class using a material you can't erase, and so I used both fineliner and biro. I ranged from doing 10 second studies to ones which took a little more like 2 minutes-3 minutes. Overall, I quite enjoyed this exercise but found the only drawing I really like is the one on the bottom left of the second page, mainly because I liked the quiffy hair, but also because I feel it was mildly more successful than the others.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7NsPIPBpWCN925UasA-083ezmd3n93iotndOvRvIUEBeFBQv2gOKJ3qvHFC7_W_RoyFTGg7V56h0RyrdtWlRmZcB0LCou4xE5VB8kJahjTV_xeAaUaVnz_QUTuYrmond8iHZXehU29A8w/s1600/DSC_0224.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7NsPIPBpWCN925UasA-083ezmd3n93iotndOvRvIUEBeFBQv2gOKJ3qvHFC7_W_RoyFTGg7V56h0RyrdtWlRmZcB0LCou4xE5VB8kJahjTV_xeAaUaVnz_QUTuYrmond8iHZXehU29A8w/s640/DSC_0224.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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These are the usual warm up studies from the beginning of the life drawing class, however with a slight difference this time. We used charcoal for a few of them, and I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of it. It never really seems to do what I want it to, but I feel like being forced to use it in class will help me develop further so I can't complain.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJZcdFYpZ2I5FEbHKI9EXN_l8Rm-pjAGt5AzQhXg5PFckeqASdEDkJwv9J-c4nxaBdVGR0fo3kCKdkyB40hydGEJL2eHL99F3_5RiFSllWGJ6NSyt-UhCHAEe08A9QeYllL5OrTaYqvxwb/s1600/DSC_0223.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJZcdFYpZ2I5FEbHKI9EXN_l8Rm-pjAGt5AzQhXg5PFckeqASdEDkJwv9J-c4nxaBdVGR0fo3kCKdkyB40hydGEJL2eHL99F3_5RiFSllWGJ6NSyt-UhCHAEe08A9QeYllL5OrTaYqvxwb/s640/DSC_0223.jpg" width="598" /></a></div>
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This was a study in which we were given around 20 minutes after doing an initial 1 minute thumbnail to help us plan it out a bit. I have to say, I'm particularly pleased with this one as I think it highlights the fact I'm not very good at foreshortening. The feet are terrible as well, but I was a shown a trick in order to draw feet better later on in the session which I can now take on to further drawings. Although not hugely successful as a whole, after having avoided charcoal for so long I can't help but be pleased with what I finally managed.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR97-IsGV5OCTmj4oFLiBya6dSMRIHwBG3fJpodQxQVGqgZbqLRihcFnSq_lcNGs2MmhGY6Dt0t5JuajpvCWrtaTNz4b1qDMTT0n2b_NhAzMO77e9DaGdHJMXBu7MwqZPaZuQ_Bbn-T8uo/s1600/DSC_0210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR97-IsGV5OCTmj4oFLiBya6dSMRIHwBG3fJpodQxQVGqgZbqLRihcFnSq_lcNGs2MmhGY6Dt0t5JuajpvCWrtaTNz4b1qDMTT0n2b_NhAzMO77e9DaGdHJMXBu7MwqZPaZuQ_Bbn-T8uo/s640/DSC_0210.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHhgzVgHp-JLNFP9vSWQAQLFrUF2vShv8H_6sJJhFiHLEe7Cw0NURlXTP57_EEVx6EC7aYLRewQPS2SAUd7K30kNsMge3Ns0e7Up8HusYi-IfYIaKDD7ziegrQ5NFS1uwjBEAiKKbYSLhP/s1600/DSC_0211.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHhgzVgHp-JLNFP9vSWQAQLFrUF2vShv8H_6sJJhFiHLEe7Cw0NURlXTP57_EEVx6EC7aYLRewQPS2SAUd7K30kNsMge3Ns0e7Up8HusYi-IfYIaKDD7ziegrQ5NFS1uwjBEAiKKbYSLhP/s640/DSC_0211.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjgCvOwHY4VOezSR1nseuT1mJa_k-G9W8LeAtnLEcQN3-6LYahkI-diUkn4piZTU-PMCXGzkdj4n5wNGXe_zU-7EyDsjszTkSimrcwIClSTvxKDHbaYqnVqk8QN62COMOdFGQQ0vx6hY6c/s1600/DSC_0212.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjgCvOwHY4VOezSR1nseuT1mJa_k-G9W8LeAtnLEcQN3-6LYahkI-diUkn4piZTU-PMCXGzkdj4n5wNGXe_zU-7EyDsjszTkSimrcwIClSTvxKDHbaYqnVqk8QN62COMOdFGQQ0vx6hY6c/s640/DSC_0212.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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And there we have all my bone studies, with the last one being my final piece. I feel like my final doesn't look all that much different from my preparatory studies, and I believe this is because I didn't spend enough time drawing my final and instead composed something rather simple, and it barely fills half the page which isn't ideal either. Overall though, I had fun drawing in the museum, and even went for trip number 2 a few days later and enjoyed it even more, and I can take a lot away from the experience as well.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7189301213451168191.post-6167673959108935072013-11-22T02:15:00.000-08:002013-11-22T03:25:58.809-08:00Visual Design Week 4 - Incapable of drawing deer Week 4 was a bit of a strange one. Having got used to the usual Monday morning routine of life drawing, it seemed weird now to suddenly be whisked off to Bradgate and end up spending my morning with stags instead. However, as you've probably seen from my previous post regarding this week, I had a lovely time and I feel like that translated into how much I enjoyed drawing the place.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlMr4D5_bI9lSGcLbbWToWdGl5hRoczTNLph4uhopWfoUj7AXsNnvm3Yn1b3aoAp7LYVVE_YLWkgTSnVENiwqKVjMa5zzqUnOWV__G3XldIgbsYj2A0vJ1ZCWw4-lTAoaaC9_1V-GHxnZ/s1600/DSC_0206.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlMr4D5_bI9lSGcLbbWToWdGl5hRoczTNLph4uhopWfoUj7AXsNnvm3Yn1b3aoAp7LYVVE_YLWkgTSnVENiwqKVjMa5zzqUnOWV__G3XldIgbsYj2A0vJ1ZCWw4-lTAoaaC9_1V-GHxnZ/s640/DSC_0206.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I have rather little experience drawing landscape, and so I don't know much about creating atmosphere or anything like that. I did enjoy giving it all a go though, but as you can see I quite often reverted back to drawing zoomed in areas of the scene rather than a whole scene itself.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKsJ4l15r21Zp_gEOtefvmCKjMkO2tytrjXAVVbzyeVJoC9rKRq_d14APXJGxVNM0mSnuR-R1e0FnpSfN1zFCjn9Cxe4qq2m6xdLWuwih3aua-Z8Du3k5RCNcL73D_WoAC1shRGJPKZ7sI/s1600/DSC_0207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKsJ4l15r21Zp_gEOtefvmCKjMkO2tytrjXAVVbzyeVJoC9rKRq_d14APXJGxVNM0mSnuR-R1e0FnpSfN1zFCjn9Cxe4qq2m6xdLWuwih3aua-Z8Du3k5RCNcL73D_WoAC1shRGJPKZ7sI/s640/DSC_0207.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I quite liked the tree stump drawing on the right for a while, but then I drew the deer to the left of it and it seems to have spoilt how much I liked this page before. I'm not entirely sure why, but whatever I did to it it made it look like it had a moustache. I knew I wasn't very good at drawing human faces but I didn't realise that attempting this stag would produce such a painfully bad drawing. Maybe I'll go back and attempt to draw him slightly better one day.</div>
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Above is my final for this little adventure, and I have to say that I'm not entirely keen on it even though I don't dislike it. I just feel it may lack depth but I also tried not to go too mad with tone because I wanted to bear in mind the subtleties of the landscape. Mostly, I feel like I should have darkened the tones nearer the foreground to make there seem like there is a distance between the trees behind and the grass in front.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15024062834294617735noreply@blogger.com0