The Vehicle project

And so I thought I should post a little about my vehicle project

I decided to do the Wallace and Gromit Motorbike and Sidecar from A Close Shave.

Here's a few shots of it untextured.
As you can see, parts of it look pretty flat, these were fixed after.

I then started playing around with texturing my bike. Instead of using alot of different texture maps I started playing with the glossiness and shine in the material editor. It wasn't until I set up all these things that it started to look a bit more like a bike.

I also have a reflect map on it.

Heather then told me the bike textures looks very bland and it looked realitively new so i decided to add dirt to the wheel guards and scratches to the front of the sidecar to make it look a little more worn.

Finally after I made it I began to destroy it. I turned the sidecar into the plane, broke the gun so it's leaking porridge into the seat area and took the wheels off. I also added numerous amounts of scratches, dents and broke the light.

By far this is the project I've most enjoyed so far.

Finally an update

I thought it might be best to update this blog since I haven't updated since last year.

Thought I'd post a quick speedpaint I did a while ago when I was still hung up over the church idea for my final major project. I was trying to focus mainly on the highlights and the colours used within the picture.

Aspiration

Aspiration has a lot of meanings though the one I’m going for is “what’s my dream”.
I have lots of aspirations, many for the future beyond university but I will focus a lot more on what I want to achieve over the summer.

Over the summer I wish to improve my skills in both the 3D and drawing departments.
When it comes to the 3D work I am still slower then I hope to be and I feel that my work is still not as good as I could make it. I hope that either going back and redoing old projects or doing projects that will be set for us will speed up my work.

One aspect I want to get truly good at is creating a human figure. When it came to creating my character in the Mortal Engines project I was unhappy with it even though I had redone it. First time I created my character I tried to make it from box modelling which did not work so well for me. I chose to model it a different way and I got better results the second time round so I am hoping that I can continue creating characters and hopefully get a better grasp at modelling them.

Another thing I would like to better my skills at is the texturing side of 3D. There are a lot of things I still need to learn about texturing. It’s only recently I’ve been starting to use multiple maps to gain a more pleasing result.

When it comes to the drawing side of the course I wish to again further my skills. I still have a horrible manga like style seeping through my work and I want to get it gone. It affects my character development a lot and I want to keep it away from work related things. I also want to work on trying to integrate a Manet style into my work to show that my recreations are improving my own style.

Another thing would be again to practise perspective, especially with ovals since I tend to be rather bad at them still. I also want to try and broaden my style so I can draw less organic shapes and harsher lines and shapes.
Of course the major aspiration would be to make it into third year so I can continue on this course to the very end and hopefully to a job in the gaming industry after that.

If I was to ever get my dream job it would be working somewhere within Square Enix but judging from their high standards that’s a long way off. Before that though I wouldn’t mind working for any company. I’d love to work on some form of character design but at the moment that is a weak area for me so I plan to practice it in the summer. I am also looking at company sites seeing when internships are going back up so I can try and apply for one to see if I have a chance of getting in.

Reflection

Reflection time

In general I thought the second year went pretty well. I enjoyed it a lot more than first year and I have become more confident in my work. Through the first semester I felt I was working at first year level still, enjoying the visual design side of the work more than the game production but when I got into second semester I found a new love for 3DS Max and asset creation meaning I started to do more 3D work improving my knowledge and skills in the area.

In my visual design I find my style has constantly changed but still has the horrible manga style. I feel I have improved my skills throughout second year and due to me doing more Photoshop and digital painting I have started to improve a lot more in my computer skills. I enjoyed doing work in the holidays a lot as I managed to mix together my interests with the university work to get a result I was pleased with.

In my game production I felt at the beginning of the year I started out really slow and being at year one level still. I felt my first semester projects did not go as well as I’d hoped though I was quite proud of the vehicle I created at the time. When it came to second semester I began to use 3DS Max more and I became quicker at using it. I also started to like what I was starting to create and even though it was making trash I felt it was the best thing I’d created over the year. When it came to the group project I managed to get a lot faster at making things and started to enjoy using 3DS Max even more. If I could have changed anything over the past year it would probably be to redo my whole first semester. I feel I could have worked a lot harder in the first semester especially with the 3D Environment and Vehicle. I would also like to go back on the Visual Design and do more work for the first semester. I really feel I began to work harder in the second semester compared to the first semester. I would probably would go back and do more sketches in my sketchbook and do more work off the computer since I enjoy using traditional media and I have not used it so much over this year.

Over this year I feel I’ve learnt a lot to do with programmes. I have found that I have become a lot quicker with my work and a lot more efficient due to learning more about the programmes I use. I have become faster at creating 3D assets and faster and unwrapping them too. In Photoshop I have began to make my own brushes to give a more realistic effect to my paintings and it also allows me to play with new styles as well.

I also learnt how to use Unreal this year and have enjoyed using it. I created my own room and added physics to some of the items in the room. I wish I had spent more time using the engine, being able to add effects to things.

Group Project

Now it’s time to write a blog entry to do with the group project.

The group project, something I haven’t enjoyed as much as I wish I had.

After deciding on a back room and working out what we needed to do. Originally we wanted to change the building into something more gothic and have some grand cathedral like architecture. We soon decided that this would take a lot longer than we would have to make the project and so decided it would be best to make the room that we were going to use to our best ability and then fill it with items and make it more resident evil styled.

After deciding everything I made a basic white box of the room. This was to work out where lighting would go, where items should be placed and to help with scale. Originally I got the scale wrong so I then edited it so it would have a more correct scale. I spent a lot of time on the railings in particular when making the model since I felt they were a very unusual shape and would cast some rather nice shadows with correctly placed lighting.
When I had created the white box I used it to help with creating a concept for the level. I changed the colour of the lighting to work out what would look better. In the concept I blocked off areas and added rubble to hopefully give it a more run down, broken feel.

After doing that I started working on my 3D work. I began with making piles of rubbish and boxes and then created smaller assets like plug sockets, shutters and signs. I created a few items to add into the group project and I made them either dirty or broken to fit with the style of the level.
I double checked that everything was correctly named and collision meshes were placed where needed on the items. I made sure everything had the needed texture maps, not just diffuse but specular and also normal maps.

Finally I decided to place my items in my own unreal room to prove I could use unreal. I created some fracture meshes for my items and I also added some physics so things could be shot. I scattered my 3D objects around the room so they can be seen and walked around.
After getting everything until unreal that I had made and everything had been placed into the group project I considered that part of my work was complete.

Working in a group project has been a new experience for me and though I did not enjoy it as much as I should of I still wouldn’t dismiss a third year group project. I feel that if the communication in our group was a little clearer and a little more forced then the project would have been made a little faster and more items could have been made.

The group has taught me a few things. It has allowed me to speed up making items. I have definitely sped up using 3DS Max compared to when I was using it for the Mortal Engines project and I feel the pressure of having to get my assets completed for another person on time has helped.

Cultural Walks

For one of our Visual Design briefs we have to create a problem with Leicester and fix it with a form of art.

It took me a while to think of an idea for this project but after creating a couple of mood boards I finally got an idea.

While walking through Leicester it’s quite easy to notice that it’s rather built up, dull and unless you go to certain areas it lacks a lot of greenery. This is when the thought occurred to me “Do people living in Leicester realise how beautiful the parks are around them?”
Right outside Leicester there is Bradgate Park and just walking through it is awe-inspiring. It’s such a different environment compared to the centre of Leicester so how wonderful would it be to put something based off Bradgate Park right in front of the Highcross.

So now I had my problem and part of my answer. I wanted to place something based off Bradgate Park in Leciester but what was that something.

I looked over old photos from my time wandering through the park to try and get an idea of what I could use. One idea could have been Old John but that wouldn’t create the more natural look I wanted. Then I noticed how amazing and downright beautiful some of the trees are in Bradgate. They’re all twisted and warped, hollow in places and weird. So now my mind was settled on creating some form of tree.
I now knew what I wanted to create, a tree of some form to place in the middle of Leicester but I didn’t just want to plant a tree. As a statement planting a tree would work but I wanted to get more creative.
I had an idea about using Willow shoots and weaving them to create a shape of a tree. We used to have a dome house in my primary school made of weaved willow and kids used to play in it all the time. It was very natural and it would also sprout leaves as well. Though I liked this idea I wanted to create something a little different, using man made materials.
I started to look through different sculptures to try and get an idea of what I could create; I wanted to create the essence of the trees, twisted, hollow. I wanted kids to be able to play around it and find it interesting to look at too. My mind drifted to one of the old Bradgate Park briefs where we had to create a wire sculpture. I then began to imagine it in a bigger scale. It would have the essence of a tree, kids would be able to climb through it and play around it. Though only problem then would be that it wouldn’t be very colourful at all.

My attention drew to the leaves and what could be done of the leaves. They couldn’t be real leaves since they’d die off pretty quickly. I then remembered that a lot of Leicester’s new look is based on lighting so perhaps some form of lighting could be used.

Lighting alone wouldn’t create a rather “leafy” look alone, in face the tree would just look like it has Christmas lights draped around it so something would have to be made to be placed around the lighting to make it look like leaves. I want it to be transparent and durable yet have some colour so as the lighting filters through it shine the colour of the material.

I then thought of some form of coloured plastic. Plastic’s quite durable, it comes in a variety of colours, it can be transparent and it can be fused quite well to metal. It could be attached to the top tree branches to either look like leaves or just large sheets bunched together to create a larger body of leaves.

Colour suddenly came in to place. My initial idea was green but then I thought again and thought autumnal colours would be prettier, there would be more variety of colour (gold through to red) and it would be more striking.
So I finally had my idea complete. It would be a tree made of wire with thin durable coloured plastic for leaves, then for a more striking effect at night lighting would be place on the branches.

Progress

I’m dedicating this blog to progress.

Every so often while rummaging through my room I’ll find a sketchbook that’s years old, look through it and be amazed at how much my artwork has changed.
More recently I’ve been looking at university work and how much I’ve progressed from first year and through second year.

When I first started the course I didn’t know how to create things in 3DS Max and I wasn’t that confident at digipainting. The very first digipaint I created was very blotchy, the colours were too bright, the shading wasn’t right and the background was just as strong as the foreground. My life drawing wasn’t proportioned correctly either.

When it came to the 3D work, everything was classed as an improvement from making a small church to texturing but I never noticed how much I’d improved on 3D work until this year. At the beginning of the year I wasn’t confident with my 3D work. Though I managed to complete the tasks I was given I still wasn’t happy with what I did. In the second semester however the first thing I made was a wheelie bin and I was quite happy with it. After that I created some trash then moved onto the group project, to which I made a white box of the room and more rubbish. The items I created in second semester looked much better than first semester, even the white box I created for the group project seemed a lot better then what I was making in the first semester. In the first semester it took weeks to get everything made and textured and in second semester I could make small assets in a few hours.

The picture above is a screenshot of an airship I created for the mortal engines project. It took at least 3 weeks and tweaking over a holiday period. At the time it was one of the best models I’d created.

And this picture is of a more recent piece of 3D work. Again it’s a type of vehicle but it’s a lot more simple and without texturing. It took less time compared to the first one. It also has more detail in compared to the first, since I created indents for doors and handles.

When it comes to the artwork throughout the year I don’t think I’m improved as much as I have in my game production work. I have however improved greatly from the beginning of first year.

This was the first picture I did in my first year. It was a digipaint of the canal. At the time it was very blotchy and the colours were all wrong. It also took me a few days to make.

This is the first picture I created in the second year. The colouring is a lot better, perspective is more correct and I’ve managed to put more detail into it. It’s not as blotchy but the lines are more sketchy and loose.

I have also improved on my life drawing skills, developing a better sense of proportion also developing different styles and colouring. The first of the two pictures below is the first year drawing, the bottom one is the second year

Graphics vs. Game play

Throughout the years I have enjoyed playing many games but more recently I have found that rather enjoying the game I’ve just found it visually stunning. Though it is a good thing that games are getting better visually once upon a time it was about playing the game and enjoying it. I am an artist and I love high-res HD graphics but it’s always been a pet hate when I play a pretty game to find it boring and the plot lacking.

Back in the time of the original Playstation there were many games there were failures but a lot shone through(if not more so for plot). This for me has become a less recent occurrence. Recently I have found games to be boring if not lacking a good plot but visually stunning.
I remember back on the Playstation owning Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider 2. Back then the graphics were brilliant, good old pixilated triangular boobed Lara in all her glory climbing cubed rocks and swimming through turquoise waters. It might not seem so brilliant now but back then it was astounding. Not only were the graphics good for the time but the plotline was brilliant. You played Lara Croft an archaeologist who with two pistols and a shotgun (plus many other guns) went on a long journey through many levels around the world to get to some form of epic treasure to defeat the bad guy. Sure these days the games might have the same basic plotline but now the game run time is a lot less and though Lara looks good in Denim with her now rounded boobs I don’t want to go around pulling levers to make her arms stronger to go through a door. The only recent success Tomb Raider had was in a remake of the original game for the PS2, great graphics and a sound plotline.

Another example of how graphics have outshone the game play was the most recent Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy XIII. Never had I seen such attention to detail in some skin. It was such a visually stunning game but when playing the game I found that it felt like I was playing through some form of artist showcase. The game play was appalling, there were some good ideas but they were thrown together so badly nothing fitted and worked well. The characters were unlikeable too. Maybe it was just the company at fault, trying to prove they could bring something new to an old series but after playing a lot of Squares prettier games I find myself losing faith in the games industry.

A lot of Final Fantasy fans these days want a remake of Final Fantasy VII after seeing the Playstation 3 demo. Square refuse to do this though because making it with the same quality graphics as XIII would mean it would take over 5 years (according to them). At least if they had a go at making it they would have a sound plot in place rather than the terrible stories they’ve started throwing out.

After playing quite a few games recently I’ve found that I’ve enjoyed the most a fighting game called Blazblue: Calamity Trigger. Sure it’s a fighting game meaning minimal plot but a plot still exists, the characters are likeable and to top it all off it’s a 2D sprite fighter.

I also seem to be enjoying playing my hand held games recently which have never really been good for graphics but on occasion have thrown out some brilliant plots.

The evolution of a great game series...

This one is just for you Mike!

And so as the release date for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver starts coming into view I’m going to dedicate a blog to this epic game series.

Way back in 1996 Nintendo decided to create a game which was based on insect collecting, a hobby which the creator Satoshi Tajiri had as a child. This idea obviously evolved and became a game about collecting imaginative creatures rather than collecting insects.

Pokémon (or Pocket Monsters) is a game where the player becomes a Pokémon trainer, going on a journey to collect and train all the Pokémon they can find. Along the way they have to beat a selection of strong opponents who are gym trainers and after beating these trainers the Pokémon trainer can fight a group of elite trainers to gain the title of Pokémon master.
Technically the story of the game ends there but you can continue and fight people online, trade Pokémon and more recently compete in competitions.

Originally the game was released back in 1996 as two versions Pokémon Red and Green. Since these two proved popular an enhanced Blue version was released and this was then later reprogrammed with Red to become the international release versions in 1998. After these versions were release another version, Pokémon Yellow was released. This version had slightly enhanced graphics but the biggest change was in the plot. Rather than being the exact same game they changed the characters and certain scenes to try and mimic the anime which was fast becoming more popular than the games at the time. These games were classed as first generation only having the first generation of Pokémon in them (the first 151)

The second generation was released in 2000 as Pokémon Gold and Silver. These games took the new Pokémon total to 251, adding 100 new ones into the mix. These games made use of a time system in which the game kept track of time, turning the game to day or night depending on the time that was set, this effected Pokémon and certain events. The graphics were also better than the previous game having more range of colour in them. An enhanced version of the games called Pokémon Crystal was released later.

In 2003 the third generation was released. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire was released bringing with it 135 new Pokémon to the mix. As popular as the games were they were criticised for leaving out certain features like the day-and-night system which was in the previous game. Again an enhanced version of these titles were released called Pokémon Emerald.
After the release of Ruby and Sapphire remakes of the original games were released. These were named Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. The game boasted better graphics but again was criticised for simplicity like Ruby and Sapphire.

The fourth generation debuted in 2006 called Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. These were for Nintendo DS. An additional 107 Pokémon were added to the mix bringing the total up to 493. These games were a lot more complex than their predecessors, boasting touch screen technology and a lot better graphics. A more enhanced version called Pokémon Platinum was released.
In 2009 Nintendo announced remakes of Gold and Silver for the Nintendo DS. They were released in September in Japan and are to be released later this month everywhere else. They also announced earlier this year that a new game was in development and it is to be the fifth generation.

In Japan and throughout a lot of the world Pokémon is a popular franchise spawning not just games but anime, manga, card games and toys. The anime is just as popular as the games these days, running for as long as the games have. It has been running for 12 seasons now, spanning over different generations of Pokémon and regions. There are also 12 films to go along with the anime and a thirteenth set for release in the summer.
Though Pokémon might not suit everyone’s taste you have to admit it’s had a good run and it will probably continue until a new even more ingenious game with weirder creatures is released but until then remember, gotta catch ‘em all!

Final Fantasy XIII review

Today is a very awesome today. Today is the official Final Fantasy XIII release and since I’ve wanted to write a game review for a very long time I’m going to write one about Final Fantasy XIII and whether waiting 3+ years was worth it.

Final Fantasy XIII is the latest Final Fantasy title to be released by Square Enix. It is a Fantasy Japanese roleplay game with a fast paced action twist. It has both good and bad points so far and this is what I think so far of it.

STORY
It’s a sci-fi fantasy style story based in a world called Pulse, a beautiful utopia that looks like something out of James Cameron’s Avatar (which is quite funny since Square want to sue him for stealing their environment). On this world there is some really powerful beings called Fal’cie’s who can ‘curse’ humans into becoming L’Cie. The L’cie are given focuses by the Fal’cie which if they don’t complete something bad happens and if you do then the reward isn’t so great (basically a lose lose situation). You play a group of humans turned L’cie who have to save their world etc etc etc.

Basically like every Final Fantasy it’s all pretty much japans RPG dribble which includes curses, magic, monsters with fancy names and some form of emotional main character with hair issues. The story isn’t as amazing as previous ones. One thing which annoyed me mostly about it was after playing about 3 hours I suddenly started to realise that I was replaying Final Fantasy VII, the intro story and the characters are nearly enough identical. Square probably decided to do this after realising Final Fantasy VII was their most liked game out of the series.

All in all I found the story to be pretty poor (especially compared to previous attempts) but it was definitely not the worst aspect of the game.

CHARACTERS
As usually Square has created a crazy cast of characters with over-the-top hair and clothing but this time there is a bit of a difference.

When playing a Final Fantasy game I tend to end of becoming attached to at least one character, mostly the main character but this time no one has grabbed my attention. Sure they look great but personality is another issue all together. At the moment the characters are just socially inept morons with colourful back story. Maybe it’s because the opening few hours the game flitters from character to character meaning you don’t really get a main character. It could even be because of the voice actors.

In short awesome looking characters, pathetically thought out personalities.

BATTLING
One of the big things in Final Fantasy is the battle system. For roughly 10 games it was a action-battle-time-wait-for-bar-to-load-then-attack battle then suddenly it got to Final Fantasy XII and you only needed to control one character and you could set up all the other characters actions out of battle. Now in XIII the battle system is different again.

You control one character and they act as your main and you have two other characters in your group. Instead of setting the other two characters actions you set their style of fighting. Usually they go in as “Ravagers” which means they’ll just constantly attack but then within battle you can change their style via a funky shift-changing thing called a “Paradigm Shift”. Your characters can then be changed into Medics, Saboteurs, Synergist etc. This is less time consuming then setting them up outside of battle but there is a downside.

The styles have no middle ground, when you are in that style the character will stay doing what it is told to do until you’ve switched again, for example a medic constantly heals even when all characters health are full and in order for the medic to attack their style must be changed, changing all the other characters in the process. Now this would be perfectly fine but since Square seems to have wanted to speed up game play and make the battle scene look rather messy by having characters flip around none stop it’s very distracting and so shifting becomes a second thought until half your parties dead.

Basically very messy/distracting battle scene with a switch system which could probably do with being more refined to keep up with battle speed.

VISUALS
The one thing Square Enix is best at. The best thing about the game so far has been the nice high definition graphics. They are simply gorgeous.

Since the world is fantasy based the palette is very vibrant. At the moment it’s been mostly dominated by greens and blues and very harsh light tones. The environment is very much like James Cameron’s Avatar mixed with Tron in places.

The graphics are the best I’ve seen within a game. So crisp and detailed. The Skin textures are amazing, mottled slightly and filled with pours. The hair is probably not the best hair I’ve seen in a game but still amazing and the eyes seem somewhat lifelike.

Definitely a thumbs up from me though I do prefer my more Final Fantasy IX styled worlds to this one.

As much as I could continue babbling on about the game and the good and bad points I’m going to stop myself and give a general overview.

To me the game is a set of brilliant concepts that just don’t fit together. It seems as though Square don’t know if they’re making a roleplay game or a fast-paced action game (the two don’t really merge which is a shame). It’s one of the better games I’ve played this year though on the Playstation 3. Reviewing the game as a Final Fantasy I would say it’s probably one of the worst ones they’ve made to date even if the intro story was the exact same to Final Fantasy VII.

On the bright side this game is one of three and definitely not the one I’m pinning all my hopes on.

Time Management

For a weekly task in one of our recent critical studies lectures we were told to note down all our daily tasks for a week. This would allow me to see how I spend my time and if I spend it wisely.

Throughout the week I noted down most, if not all the things I did and wrote down the time I started everything. This was how my diary looked:

THURSDAY
8.00am – Woke up
9.00am – Did some digipainting
11.00am – Went to get train12.00pm – Lecture start
1.00pm – Finished Lecture. Went to labs to work
2.15pm – Got on train to go home
3.00pm – Worked on War of The Worlds project
4.45pm – Stopped for food
5.15pm – Played Assassins Creed 2
6.00pm – Practised perspective drawing
7.30pm – Doodled in Photoshop
9.00pm – Watched anime
11.00pm – Bed

FRIDAY
9.00am – Woke up
10.00am – Cleaned out hamster
10.40am – Finished painting for a friend
11.00am – Continued War of The Worlds model
2.30pm – Get ready for work
3.45pm – Left for work
10.15pm – Got home and watched TV
12.00am – Bed

SATURDAY
9.00am – Woke up, played Assassins Creed 2
11.00am – Went into town
2.00pm – Came home and worked on War of The Worlds project
4.00pm – Practised Perspective work
6.00pm – Went on the computer and worked on 3D work
8.00pm – Worked on Digipainting
9.30pm – Started watching TV
12.00am – Bed

SUNDAY
9.00am – Woke up
10.00am – Got ready for work
11.30am – Went to work
3.30pm – Sent home from work due to sickness
4.30pm – Bed

MONDAY
7.00am – Got up
8.00am – Went to get train
9.00am – Got to university, did some 3D work
10.00am – Lesson start
4.30pm – Lesson finished
5.15pm – Got on train to go home
5.00 – Got home, started drawing
6.30pm – worked on 3D work
10.00pm – Came off the computer, read book
11.00pm – Bed

TUESDAY
7.00am – Woke up
8.00am – Went to get train
9.00am – Got into university, started 3D work
10.00am – Lesson start
4.00pm – Lesson finished, went to get train
5.00pm – Got home
5.00pm - Worked on digipainting
8.00pm – Watched anime
10.00pm – Went to played Assassins Creed 2
11.00pm – Bed

WEDNESDAY
9.00am – Woke up
11.00am – Went to get train
12.00pm – Got into Leicester, went to get food
1.30pm – Went to go watch film
2.00pm – Lesson Start
4.00pm – Lesson Finished
4.15pm – Got on train
5.00pm – Got home, played Assassins Creed 2
6.00pm – worked on 3D model
9.00pm – Came off computer and watched Pokémon
11.00pm – Bed

In the lecture the following week I was asked to read out my diary of the week and work out how much time was spent doing certain things. After poorly working it all out in my head it was found out that I was missing 30 hours out of 168 hours. I later checked this all and worked it out with a calculator to find that I wasn’t missing so many hours.

There is 168 hours in the week. In the week I spent:
· 69.5 hours sleeping
· 8 hours travelling to university and back via the train
· 15.5 hours in my lectures and lessons
· 29.25 hours out of university working on set work
· 10.5 hours at work
· 23.5 hours doing personal things like gaming, watching television and drawing my own artwork.

After adding all the times together it came to 156.25 hours (156 hours and 15 minutes), this meant I was losing 11 hours and 45 minutes. Some of that time must go towards eating and bathing but it is alot of time to spend just on those things.

To help me see how I spend my time I have created a bar chart to help me see clear and create a plan on how to manage my time

Sleep - Quite a lot of my time is spent sleeping. Sleeping is a necessity but I could wake up a few hours earlier on some days to free up a few more hours to spend on university work. I wouldn’t normally spend this much time sleeping but I became ill on the Sunday and after being sent home from work went straight to bed to get some much needed sleep.

Travel – A good portion of my time is spent travelling to and from university. I am a rather fast walker and try to stay either at university or home as long as a can, leaving minimum time waiting for the train. This means I can’t lessen the amount of time it takes to travel. I could however spend my time on the train and waiting for the train more wisely by drawing the people around me and sketching the scenery

University – Takes up a good portion of time and I should probably spend even more time there.

2D drawing and 3D modelling – This is the university work I do out of university. In the week I did the diary I was working on making a War of The Worlds model for the visual design. I worked on this quit a lot to try and get it finished in the week. I also spent my time digipainting and trying further my knowledge in Photoshop. I also spent my time working on creating my vehicle for my game production project. Though I spent the necessary time for work outside of university I noticed that I spent 18 hours and 45 minutes on drawing and only 10 hours and 30 minutes on game production.

When it comes to working outside of university I have a problem with dividing my time properly between the subjects. This pie chart shows that. I should be splitting my time more evenly so both subjects get the necessary attention.

Work – Though this takes up more time then I would like it to the money gained from working allows me to travel to university and back.

Personal – This is things gaming, watching television (and heaven forbid anime) and drawing my own artwork and artwork for other people. This took up a large chunk of my week and though I was able to get the amount of university work needed within the week done if I dedicated of my time to gaming and more of my time to my studies I could get more practise in which could make me a better worker and also get me a better grade.

Unknown – This is the time that has managed to escape me. The time is probably covers bathing, eating and getting my pet hamster out. This couldn’t possibly add up to 11 hours and 45 minutes so I have to be losing hours somewhere, possibly daydreaming and making decisions. I could use this time doing more important things.

After working out what all my time is being used for I need to create a plan of action so I can use my time more efficiently. When I was younger and revising for exams I found the best way to make me use my time more efficiently and to split my time evenly was to make a timetable and stick to it.

With this time table I now have:
· 23 hours of visual Design work outside university
· 21 hours of 3d modelling work outside of university
· 20 hours of personal (this includes eating, bathing, drawing my own things and watching TV etc)

Making this time table has allowed me to see where I’m losing valuable time. It has also helped me to organise myself and allow myself to concentrate more on my university work by sticking to it.

To help me visualise where my hours have changed and what’s improved I created another pie chart. As it can be seen my amount of sleep and personal has decreased. My work outside university has increased. I have also added “waking up” to my pie chart which is the hour I spend in the morning getting ready for university.

Other things have increased like work and university, this is to be more realistic with the time it takes up and so I don’t lose any hours.

RESULTS

I have been following the timetable the best I can even throughout the Christmas holidays replacing university with more homework (and occasionally work). I have found that I have started creating more work then I originally was. Since I also know I have to follow the time table I have became more disciplined when it comes to distractions. This means I spend my working time more wisely and not looking out a window every few minutes.
I think this timetable will prove useful in the next few months, keeping me on track and allowing me to create more work and allowing time to practise new skills which will hopefully help me throughout my time at university.

I have made another timetable which will act as a week two where the 3 hours of personal time I have on a Saturday together is replaced by university work. This will allow me to have more time to do university work.

Even though I am following this timetable I still feel that I am not creating enough artwork to show, which I hope would be fixed by the amount of hours now spent on it. I hope to improve this over time by creating smaller timetables to split my hours up of useful exercises to speed me up and to better my drawing skills.

To conclude I believe this timetable has created a positive result meaning I am using my time more effectively.