The Little Blog of Horrors

Five favourite Artists

2011-05-17T01:46:00.000-07:00

Since the question was asked at the mock interview I thought I’d have a go and name my five favourites

Frida Kahlo

Absolutely adore her work. I remember basing a few school projects on her. I always loved how she never exaggerated anything about her features in her artwork yet she’d do elaborate backgrounds or clothing. I also loved her she added thought bubbles into her work. I always felt that she really managed to put her feelings across in her work

Michelangelo

One of the most memorable moments in my life is going to the Accademia di Belle Arti and turning a corner just to see at the end of a long corridor David.

Alan Davis

A comic book artist. Though he’s probably not the best one to exist I just love his line art. He uses such thick and confident lining in his work and mixes it with dynamic poses.

Yoshitaka Amano

I just love his colouring, he uses such vibrant colours in his artwork. I also like his detailing that he adds to his work.

Marino Marini

A sculptor who mainly made equestrian statues. His work went from realistic horses to blocks of shapes trying to define how a rider is falling off a horse.

FMP Stuff

2011-05-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

For my final major project I created a sweet shop. My assets were made in 3DS Max and my shell as created in the Unreal Editor.

I would make a group of assets, texture them then placed them into Unreal in one batch to give myself variety when working so I wouldn’t be doing the same thing for a large amount of time. Doing it like that meant I would work for longer without using enthusiasm.
Stuff in 3DS Max was made to scale for UDK. Most of my items are made in one single file so I wouldn’t have to go between 3DS Max files.

When it came to Unreal I started with the shell. It got textured with repetitive textures so the textures would be clearer. I created most of the square based assets within Unreal. This gave me a greater idea of layout before anything was imported.

I then began to import everything to see where to place them, then when I found a decent place to put the assets. The texture maps would then be imported and placed onto the assets.
After everything was imported into unreal I started adding effects, I began with adding particle effects. I wanted to add sparkles and shine to my shop to make it seem more magical. I then made the shop front door open using kismet to allow me to get outside the shop.

After I’d done everything I had to write up a design document to finish the project. This was done in Word.

I enjoyed doing the final major project. It gave me more freedom and it allowed me to learn more about unreal then I previously knew.

Films

2011-05-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the 3 years we have watched a wide variety of films. I’m to write about a couple of my favourite films and why.

Dark City Dark city was probably one of the films I liked most that was shown over the three years. A great science fiction film that made sense yet no sense at all. It had a great set of characters ranging from crazy scientist to guy with amnesia. The style of the film was great as well. Green was used for a lot to give it a sense of uneasiness and a sense of it being other worldly. This was then contrasted when it came to the end and everywhere was bathed in harsh sun light.

Identity

I loved this film for the suspense and the characters. There was cast of such diverse characters and they all had their own back stories. It’s not until the end of the film when things start to make sense and the actual film makes sense.

Brazil

Picture explains it all: MIND BLOWN!

I Am Cyborg

This was just one quirky as hell film which pretty much describes the minds of some of the greatest Japanese people in the world. It was so bright and vibrant yet complete insane at the same time.

And a couple of films I didn’t like so much:

War Of The Worlds

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqvwxvCOSH4
As cool as the alien ships looked I didn’t like the film. The acting was a little over the top especially from the son. I also grew up listening to the Jeff Wayne’s War of The Wold and quite frankly the film didn’t do that or the book justice.

Night of the hunter

It just didn’t interest me. The filming techniques were brilliant but the film just didn’t interest me in the slightest.

I'm still waiting for Pokémon The Movie.

LINK

2011-05-10T04:42:00.000-07:00

My FMP blog that I have been updating for the past few months.

Yeoldesweetshop.blogspot.com

Inpsiration

2011-05-10T04:36:00.001-07:00

Many people have a wide range of inspirations. I personally have quite a few but one of my favourite things that inspire me is nebulae. A nebula is a cloud of dust and ionized gases. It is also the place where unicorns come from.

Nebula are often come in a large array of colour and come in many different shapes and sizes. It is this that makes them a large interest for me.

Take this nebula, the Omega Nebula. It has such a large array of different colours, textures and shapes. It has the blue which has a different texture to the golden clouds in the front. It also has the stars coming through adding sharpness to the picture. It looks as though it could have been painted rather than photographed through a telescope.I lost inspiration when working on my final major project and spent a few hours looking up nebulae. I then decided to digipaint a set of 3 and then incorporated them at a later date into a set of 3 paintings to go on the wall of the shop. After spending the few hours venting and throwing colour all over the place I felt motivated enough to go back to my Final Major Project.

Rooftop project

2011-01-13T13:26:00.001-08:00

Probably one of the hardest projects I’ve had to do to date. Firstly because I couldn’t find motivation, secondly because I found unreal so hard to use.

When I first started work on the project it looked as though it was going to become a factory rooftop. It had been poorly imported into unreal, the texture was poor since I’d used a 1024x1024 map for the rooftop base.

As I came close to finishing the rooftop I was unhappy with it and I found I didn’t like it as much as I should have so I decided to redo it through the Christmas holidays.

As soon as the holidays started I began looking for tutorials on anything unreal based just from creating a simple bsp to adding water volume to a level. This was the clicking point for unreal I needed and then I began working on my new base.

I actually found it easier to work more in unreal then working in 3DS Max and spent most of my time on that making a base, adding extras, editing lighting and so on.

I changed my rooftop because I felt it didn’t work as a level and when I’d finish remaking my base I had created a larger level. The textures were a lot clearer, I’d created a slight surrounding to the level as well. I feel my new rooftop is better than my old rooftop.

Unreal

2011-01-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

And so after 2 years of the program I think I can finally say that I enjoy using it.
I spent most of the summer holidays learning a lot of things about it. One day was just me going through a lot of tutorials and finally after watching a few the penny dropped and I can finally understand how to use the program.

When I originally tried making BSP’s in Unreal I was continually using additive blocks to create a base, I found this hard to do and very time consuming. After going through one tutorial I found that rather than looking at as building blocks I was to look at it like a block of rock and I have a hammer and chisel, so I started subtracting from my base instead of adding. This allowed me to create a more “detailed” shape.

I also looked at materials and lighting. I found out that not only did I have to edit lighting by right-clicking the light in the level; I could also edit my environment settings to edit certain effects of the lighting. I was struggling with making convincing sunlight, so I looked at a few settings on previous unreal levels and changed my settings accordingly.
Particle effects were another thing I struggled on. I couldn’t find a tutorial for it on blackboard and so I turned to youtube to try and find a decent tutorial on it. After searching through countless videos I found one explaining how to apply your own texture to a particle effect and found out that they work with emissive textures.

I did plan to do more to my level. Recently I’ve been trying to add sound to it to make it more immersive. After multiple tries at trying to import sound nothing would import. I still can’t work out why it hasn’t worked since they should be the correct file names and types.

I found that redoing part of my rooftop project in the Christmas holidays really helped me learn the unreal editor. I’m more confident with using it and it has made me realise that I really want to use it for making my Final Major Project.

The Vehicle project

2010-12-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-05T12:25:00.000-08:00

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

2010-04-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-12T12:54:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-03-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

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.

German Expressionism

2009-12-12T13:31:00.001-08:00

German Expressionism was a creative movement that began in Germany before the First World War. It spread over many media including not just art but music and theatre too.
When it comes to German expressions many ideologies and theories existed between the artists causing such a wide range of styles.

The “Die Brücke” or The Bridge. They believed their movement was a bridge towards a better future. Fritz Bleylm Ernst Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rotluff founded this movement. They tended to use alot of colour in the works and would thin paints down to achieve smooth application.

Another group was one based on individual artists which were connected to the school of the Northern Expressionists. They believed their art should be simplistic and down-to-earth. Emil Nolde, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Christian Rohlfs were part of this movement.
The “Blaue Reiter” and they opposed every principle of the Die Brücke. This movement was started by Wassilly Kandinsky. Their work portrayed the world as it truly existed.

Another group was one formed by August Macke. They were called the Rhenish Expressionists and they believed their thoughts and ideas should be portrayed by form only.

When I looked around the exhibit in the Leicester museum the first thing I realised is how different all the artwork was on the walls. Some were plan black and white prints, some were brightly coloured and others where quick pencil sketches. I originally wasn’t a fan of expressionism but after seeing the range I found that some of the styles I started liking.

One of my favourite pieces was the Messiah by Ernst Neuschul. The detail of the bones on the man and the colours drew me in. Not just that but the rather shocking expression on the guys face is just...well weird but very compelling to look at.

Another picture that caught my eye was Death and Woman by Kathe Kollwitz which focused mainly on the form of a woman being pulled down by a skeleton and a child. It seems like such a simple pencil sketch but the dramatic pose really brings feeling to the picture. It’s completely different to the Messiah in media and style yet they both symbolise the views of expressionist artists.

Whoa! Disney?!

2009-11-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

Oh Disney, while you may be failing at most things I think you’re finally getting something right. I may not be an epic Disney gamer but after seeing artwork most recent game I have to say I am interested.

Maybe it could be the fact it's something dark and crooked that Tim Burton hasn't made?
But I really am just loving the whole weird dark designs and the jagged toony look everythings getting. Such simple lines yet it makes everything look so complicated and irregular beyond belief. Plus the plot seems deep and actually thought through, which seems a rare when it comes to Disney.

Plus where else are you going to see a messed up cyborg Donald Duck?

Too bad they're only releasing it for the Wii though...

Alive and Kicking

2009-11-02T12:46:00.000-08:00

Welcome back. After that Gruelling business last year I decided to build this assault course to hone my skills and learn some new ones...

Well finally I decided to update my blog, and so I thought I would start off with talking about the painter I decided to recreate, Édouard Manet.

To be honest Manet isn’t my most favorite artist in the whole entire world but I shall always remember a conversation with one of my art teachers many moons ago about the reflection in his picture A Bar at the Folies-Bergère being wrong. Sure it may be wrong perspective wise but how else would he have managed to get such a wonderful picture of the lady’s back and the gentleman if she was standing in the way of her reflection. After that conversation Manet has always sat in the back of my mind until recently when I decided to recreate his work.

Anyway on to why I chose to recreate this lovely picture:

The picture is of the painter Berthe Morisot, who was Manet’s sister-in-law. I decided to recreate this one in particular due to the brush strokes. They seem so quick and simple yet they blend so beautifully to create multiple tones. The background seems to be one colour yet look deeper and you see all so many other colours and tones blended into the yellow. The hair seems so wispy and simple yet it looks so detailed and though the dark clothes lack detail just bringing in the lighter tone brings out the shape and the warmth that seems to come from the rest of the picture.

While recreating this picture I decided to have a play with the dry brushes hidden in Photoshop and found the chalk brush, though it not a paint brush, it gives texture to the picture.

Now this is my recreation:

As you can seen not as amazing as the original masters work but I tried.

Feedback

2009-03-30T10:57:00.001-07:00

Time for a feedback blog, YAY!

A first point on how Wednesday is set out. I know I’ve spoken to a few people about it and they agree. I feel it would be more beneficial if we had the lecture in the afternoon and the film in the morning. After we have the amazing, passionate, creative lectures I always want to go and do some work, or paint something amazing but then we get the film and while watching the film the creative drive goes down hill. So it would be nice to have the really awesome lecture then go home and want to do really creative work.

I’ve mostly enjoyed the traditional art this year at university. It’s been the first time that I’ve felt like I’ve actually been doing some form of art course since A level was particularly bad. I enjoy the lessons thoroughly and I feel it has given me a better understanding and appreciation for art and artists.

I feel that even though I’m slightly behind with the 3DS Max work, I am slowly getting to terms with the programs. Since I more enjoy the drawing side I’ve been neglecting the computer work so having more traditional artwork to do would probably put me off 3DS Max even more. Luckily I have had that magic ‘click’ moment and will do more of my own work in holidays with 3DS Max.

AWESOME!

2009-03-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

And so after a spur of creative thought I decided to write some form of post, which is odd considering I am very bad at writing things down and such. Also the picture just had to go up there because to be quite frankly honest...it is AWESOME!

And so after going through one of my favourite sites which has a few inspirational if not geeky things on every so often (http://www.geekadelphia.com/ best site ever for gamer nerds) I found some things which really made me go...WOW!

(http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/steampunk/player.php?entry_id=100658)
The first thing to really get my creative juices flowing was an animation which joined together the concepts of steampunk with old myths and legends. It was an entry for a competition, which it deservedly won. Just the style of artwork in it is beautiful. I love how it looks so dull and dusty yet the animation and the way it's been painted and made into an animation brings it to life. It seems so scratchy yet it picks up the tone and idea so well, plus it seems like such an epic concept for some form of game.

(http://www.metanamorph.com/)
The second thing that made me feel all creative inside was work by a street artist called Edgar Mueller. He makes things on such a bigger scale to Julian Beever and uses paint rather then chalks to get a crisper look. I just love how his work manages to engulf whole streets, turning a simple road into a rage river or a lava flow. The fact he can not just work on pavement, but manage to work out perspective and fight the weather just makes it seem so much more brilliant. It just proves that you don't need a pencil and paper to get creative.

When I'm older I want to be...

2009-03-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

'What am I going to get out of three years at University?'
Well there’s a lot of things I want to get out of university. I want to develop skills in the areas that the course focuses in. I want to be able to use the programs, talk the lingo and hopefully get a job that corresponds to the course. I don’t particularly want to be stuck in Tesco until I’m about 50 either…

One of my major more dream-like goals that I have is to work for either Capcom or Square Enix, but alas that dream is probably a little bit out of my reach, but still something to aim for. I would love to just work in the industry most, since gaming is a hobbie and art is a passion.

I enjoy the course thoroughly at the moment, it’s one of the best things I think I’ve done in along time. The art lessons make so much better sense then the ones did in my old school where we just got told to copy other artists work. I want to be able to show the skills I gain from the course to the world and hopefully to people who want me as part of their team.

Whenever I think of reflecting on where I want to be in the future or what I want to do I always remember back to the first art lesson I had in Sixth Form. The teacher asked all the students why they chose to do art and out of everyone I was the only one who could answer her, and I will remember my answer to this day as it was one of the most cheesiest things I’ve said in my life “Because it’s my passion.”

the bad blog. It will get some major edits to it when my mind wants to kick into gear.

2009-03-15T13:26:00.001-07:00

Now for some crazy reason this blog is confusing me, might be all the information on creativity that’s been drilled into my head over the past few months.

When it comes to companies wanting different individual types I believe they can be both right. I believe that graduate artists may have a more professional aim where as liberal artists may bring something new a refreshing into the mix.

Education could meet these views by listening to the companies. Companies will have standards and will be looking for skills, education will build on the individuals skills. Plus adverts ask for experienced artists, education will create said experienced artists.

I know through my studies at university I have grown as an artist and my understanding of art has improved, so I feel now I would be more prepared to join a company with the skills I have now rathern then before starting the course.

And I'm wired for sound

2009-03-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Sound is one of the many important things in games which gives away genre and creates an ambiance. It is used to create tension, portray a feeling, to scare the player and to make something seem ten times more interesting. When multiple sensory organs are used the experience is enhanced (something to do with munching on crisps on some TV show with some famous scientific chef, it stuck in my head)

In games one of my favourite composers is Nobuo Uematsu. He is the composer used for most of the Final Fantasy games, Lost Odyssey, Chrono Trigger and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He also has his own band called The Black Mages which create a rock/metal versions of a lot of his older songs from Final Fantasy games. Jonathan Coulton is another very famous composer (This is a triumph, I’m making a note here: huge success…)

My key Sonic moment…saving Tails on the last level in Sonic the Hedgehog 2???
As a child I will always remember the scene where Aeris died in Final Fantasy VII, the music alone was beautiful. The scene started with just a low hum then as a piece of materia fell from her hair, the moment it hit the floor the music started up and it just became such a powerful piece.

Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards composition 'Good Times’ is certainly a well known composition. For me it’s probably not that influential but since it’s up beat and used quite a bit in adverts I’m sure it’s probably influential.

Mmmmmmmm Additives...

2009-03-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

A game engine is a software system designed for video games to aid creation and development. They usually include a rendering engine, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, and a scene graph. The game engines are important in gaming and are often reused for other games.

Additive and subtractive refers to how the world of games is created.

Additive environments begins with nothing, which is called a void. The designer then starts to place items into it. The Quake engines (Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena) and The Half-Life engine (Half-Life) use additive environments

Subtractive environments are opposite to additive environments. There is no void in a subtractive environment. The world starts with an infinite solid which designers must subtract from to create spaces for a user. The Unreal Engine (Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex) and The Dark Engine (Thief, System Shock 2) use subtractive environment.

Some companies specialise in “Middleware”. This is software that includes elements a game developer may need for a game. Gamebryo and RenderWare are some of the more known Middleware programs

Since there is such a high demand for amazing quality in next generation consoles it’s hard to keep up with the hype. Also game engine has to do much more then what it originally had to do to keep up with demand.

Culture

2009-03-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the gaming culture I enjoy many parts of it. I enjoy not just the playing games but listening to the music, reading the guides and even dressing up as characters (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/yamadeusa/035_35.jpg try to spot me) . Though I have not gone to a game specific convention I go to anime conventions which usually have a rather large gamer gathering along with people dressing up. Also I happen to work very closely with a gaming shop in my town. I occasionally do artwork for the front window and clutter up the shop by spending most of my Saturdays in there.

The gaming culture takes up most of my life. The Playstation 3 is near enough always on. On days where I have no work to do I can sit playing a game all day. I often spend a lot of my holidays getting games completed the moment I buy them. I buy atleast one game a month on average and last month I bought at least 3 games.

When it comes to online friends I do have quite a few contacts who are game orientated who I met via gaming sites. When I was a lot younger I used to spend most of my days on sites like Runescape and Neopets and through forums and meeting people I ended up gaining quite a few contacts with the same likes as me. I still talk to a few but I mostly chat with old friends and university friends.

Recessssssssion.

2009-03-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

Firsly an interesting link about the gaming industry and recession http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10107412-52.html

As the world suffers economic downfall many different industries are feeling the pinch, even the gaming industry. Many employees are beginning to worry over job losses and companies are being closed or being bought out. At the moment the gaming industry is at a low due to recession.

This causes major challenges. Companies have to battle the lack of money and funds to make games and pay employees. This can cause problems in game development, putting titles back or even dropping games all together. Though it will be less felt within big game companies a few smaller ones will suffer complications.
Eidos Interactive is one of the company’s who have felt the recession. They have recently gone into debt and as of now, Square Enix is planning to buy them.

At the moment, compared to many parts of the world the gaming industry seems quite sound. especially in the major companies which have quite a lot of money. The recession will be felt a lot later along the line, around the time I finish university, meaning it will be hard to find a job but as long as people continue to buy games the gaming industry will keep on going.

Creativity

2009-01-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

What is creativity????
“Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. An alternative conception of creativness is that it is simply the act of making something new.”
Creativity is something everyone has (well atleast I think they do). It ranges from mere thought to putting something on paper. It is the ability to create with originality. It is the thing that allowed Leonardo Da Vinci to invent and finally it is the thing that’s keeping this blog going.

It manifests in many forms, one form (being my favourite) is when ideas build up and the final thought it put to paper creating a marvellous image which could be a character, landscape or even an invention (as you can see below by the great Leonardo Da Vinci making crazy flying things)

When drawing, if I draw without constraint I can go for hours brainstorming ideas and not getting anything put on paper but with constraint I find that I can be creative in just a small area, meaning I can find out more details of that specific area making something that may be more realistic and have more detail. So I believe it depends on the person whether constraint enhances or hinders creativity.

When it comes to jobs just about every job is creative. Creativity is just shown in different ways. “Creativity isn't just about art and craft. We can be creative in the language we use, the sounds we make, the clothes we wear, the way we dance. But we can also be creative in the way we think. In fact, anyone can be creative even if they can't paint, dance or sing.”
Art Directors, artists, programmers and writers will all be creative. All in their way of thinking but when it comes to putting things down each way will be different. An art director will have to think fast to sort out the art team. The Arists will draw ideas, Programmers will have to think creatively to slot together bits of coding and finally writers have to be creative with the text they create.

Creativity looks like a 10in purple dinosaur with green and yellow spots called Bob…really it has many looks. It can look like text, a line on a piece of paper, a thought, an idea, a sound wave, anything. The sky’s the limit when it comes to creativity.

As creativity is much like the force from Star Wars (Everywhere, slightly crazy, something to do with Midochlorians?) it’s in everything when it comes to gaming. When it manifests in games it appears again in just about everything; the plot, the character design, the texture on the character, the landscape, the buttons used for certain actions, the programming that makes everything work, the motions of the character and items. There is also creativity in how the person interacts with the game. In games which have multiple routes which lead to an ending the player as to be creativity in thinking and work out a way to go.

When it comes to creativity some of my favourite creative people happen to be my favourite artists. Leonardo Da Vinci is very creative. I also find the artist Frida Kahlo to be very creative. She didn’t just draw portrait there would be thought bubbles and other odd things. Other creative people would be people like Tetsuya Nomura, Poppy Z. Brite, Giacometti and how about the people who were responsible for wrapping up Mikes desk and all the items in tin foil.
And finally I will show my thoughts and feelings through my drawings, creations and blogs. I’ll show creativity through my university work. My models that I’ve created will surely show creation? I would expect people to view my work, take the time to look at it and read it, that alone would make me happy.

Happy Blog

2008-12-16T10:50:00.001-08:00

Since I neglect my blog what better way to celebrate the fact I didn’t fail miserably by posting and hopefully upping my grade a bit.

I’m finding all the information from Ben Mathers insanely useful. Just watching him make something in 3DS Max has made me feel a little bit happier about working with the program. I also tend to understand it a bit more as well. Though it’s a long winded thing to watch I’m actually enjoying watching what he’s making.

Going to miss the film tomorrow. I loved watching all the crazy dystopian fantasies so I’ll have to maybe go out to the library and find some more funky films otherwise it’ll be Star Wars repeats.
My god this was really a pointless blog, but then again I have a thing about being bad when it comes to blogging. I never know what to talk about. So I think I’m gonna leave it there with a nice picture by the artist Brom, since i love his work and Ben mentioned him today.

Gameplay?

2008-12-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

Gameplay. I remember searching for a definition for that word a couple of blogs ago and finding it hard to find a definition. Without it would a game be interesting or even possible? While searching through definitions all of them mention the game and the user, saying how it is how the user interacts with a game or how the game responds. If this thing was removed how would a game be played if not played at all. In a game of chess if there was no gameplay you could not move the chess piece so surely it is an key thing.

Gameplay keeps a user involved and interested. It’s the thing that keeps us playing when it comes to gaming. When it comes to rules I don’t think it has any. It’s more about how the user interacts with the game in general, it’s the connection the user has with the game. Gameplay could be designed into a game, Chess could be one of the games solely based on gameplay. In chess the user has to move the chess piece, the user has to interact with the pieces and board otherwise the game would not be playable. Without gameplay the chess pieces could not be moved, maybe even the thought of moving them would also be none existent. I also believe that a game could not be successful without it, making it very important. Without it the interactions between the game and user would not exist meaning that one connection with the game the user had would vanish, sure the graphics and sound would be there but it would be as though the controller would not exist.

Characters

2008-12-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

Characters, one of my favourite things in a game, film or book. Ever since I was little I always wanted to be an archaeologist like Lara Croft or be able to levitate a stone like Luke Skywalker. I enjoy seeing development and designs of characters, seeing how they evolve and how they evolve even further within the world they exist in.

One of the first characters I ever got attached to was Lara Croft. I can remember playing Tomb Raider and just wishing I could climbs rocks like her and somersault. What made her even ‘cooler’ was the fact she had guns. Not only could she do the gymnastics but she was lethal as well and she was a woman. Sure she had the short shorts and the big pixelated boobs but who cared she could kick ass. As more Tomb Raider game came out Lara could do more things, making her even more cooler. The older I got the more I realised it was that she was ‘cool’ it was the fact she could do all these things that I could never do.

For me the main reason for liking characters is because they can do things I can’t. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nariko from Heavenly Sword, Luke Skywalker from Star Wars could all do things I couldn’t and just being them for a moment through watching TV or playing a game gave me that quick escape from reality. Fantasy stories are my favourite purely because I can read into the character and escape that reality that glooms over.

When it comes to interesting characters I think an appearance is key. They have to look interesting but not out of place. Also they need to have some form of personality. When it comes to films a script is definitely needed aswell as an actor and I also feel a lot of games need actors and scripts. I loved the character design for Nariko and the fact that had a proper actor to voice her meant she was more interesting. An example of needing some form of acting skill would be the original Devil May Cry, when Dante screams out “I should have been the one to fill ur dark sould with LIGHT” the actor was so bad, it just sounded so fake and amusing. (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=H8qG4AlK1qk&feature=related)

Consoles

2008-12-02T12:07:00.000-08:00

When looking through the video console timeline it’s amazing to see how they literally go from box to more streamline, rounder designs. Also the controllers were a lot more simpler compared to what they are today. The controllers had what seems to be two or three buttons now controllers have shoulder buttons, directional buttons and so on.

When it comes to consoles they are so different from what they were a long time ago from the “Brown Box” to the Playstation 3. When it comes to playing games myself I much prefer some form of controller, especially a play station controller. As I’ve mostly been a play station gamer and the controller has hardly changed shape throughout the years I find it most comfortable to use. I also find it much easier to use then a Wii remote which I usually end up flailing about with trying to get through one level.

When it comes to looks I find that Sony, though the Playstation 3 is massive, have the better looking console. The play station 3 has no sharp edges, it’s all rounded and shiny. The Playstation Portable is streamline, small and it looks much nicer compared to the Nintendo DS. The PSP I own is also a limited http://www.techgadgets.in/images/sony-crisis-core-final-fantasy-vii-psp-bundle.jpg) which is another reason I prefer the look of the PSP.

When it comes to interacting with a console eventually I believe that it’ll be done via headsets and electronically gadgets that’ll attach to peoples hands so the person can be placed in the game. The visor will allow the person to see the game in 3D and the other gadgets will map out parts of the person so they can interact within the game. I do believe though there will be some from of original hardcore gamers who will stay to the joystick and keep it alive. It won’t completely die.

Once upon a time...

2008-11-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

Stories are such an amazing and powerful thing from the first tale to sci-fi futuristic films which no one can comprehend at the time. In a game I much prefer to have a story. I enjoy being Lara Croft crawling up a side of a cliff hoping to stop the evil Jacqueline Natla from making a race of mutants or even Cloud travelling around hoping to stop Sephiroth destroying the world.

I don’t think it is necessary for a game to have a storyline. Some games like The Sims, World of Warcraft and Second Life don’t have a definite story but they are incredibly popular and are just as good as any other games which have a story. In the games which don’t have a definite storyline there is usually a goal. While a player goes through the game trying to reach the goal they make their own decisions, meaning the player must make the story. This is different in games like Tomb Raider where the storyline is set and the player must follow it.

In the game Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne there is a story present. As there is a story within the game more is known about the character. When there is a storyline in a game I feel that there is a greater emotional tie to the characters in the game. This is much useful for a game franchise with a well known character rather then a Sims game, imagine the horror of little kids bawling their eyes out because their favourite Sim just died of old age.

check your links!!!!!

2008-11-19T10:59:00.000-08:00

Firstly all that information from the first link (http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/jobs/positions/art_director.html) wasn’t that useful considering the page could not be found…anyway onto the blog.

After reading a few of the other links it seems the art director is just like Captain Kirk of Starship Enterprise. They’re responsible for quite a few things it seems. They are important for such things as game style, visual tones and so many other things as well as being indirectly responsible for objects, characters, textures and the list continues. Art Directors oversees what goes on in the art department.

When Art Directors get to draw things or create something it’s going to be creative but there would also be like an overseers role. Artists that work underneath the director will have to be watched so they keep on topic. It will be the overseeing part of the Art Director’s role that will be similar through other Directors roles. An Art Director would be focused solely on the art side of game design, this would be considered quite different to a film Director who focuses on the whole film.

To become an Art Director a key qualities must include being able the work in a team, leadership qualities, good communication skills and preferably being able to draw and use the correct equipment needed. As an Art Director oversees the team communication skills would definitely be needed and leadership skills would be needed to lead the team. Being able to work in a team would be useful as an Art Director works with other people.

game design yay!

2008-11-19T10:54:00.000-08:00

Gameplay:
Something that seems to be difficult to define. After having a gander over a few sites and trying to find a suitable definition to mutate into my own it seems all I can make of the word “gameplay” is gamer interaction with elements in a game. An appalling attempt at a definition on my behalf but I found a much better attempt which I liked:
“A general term that's difficult to define, but on the whole relates to the way a game responds to a player's control, and how enjoyable the overall experience proves as a result.” (http://www.game.co.uk/lowdown.aspx?lid=7771&cm_sp=contenthub-_-topnav-_-jargon)

The leading lights in game design could be anyone in the game design world. Surely every company has made a brilliant game in the eyes of at least one person. But within the companies an artist would be key in design but not the only component. They would need to design characters, and places but another person would be needed for plot. This means game design is not just a single persons responsibility.

Game design takes place after preparation. Much like how Chris Crawford lays it out. A goal must be chosen first and the correct research carried out before the game is actually designed. The designing of the game is just one of the many phases there is in creating a complete game. Different genres may have different goals and different research would be needed.

When I play a game I want a game that will grip me from the beginning to the end. Though I like graphics, it’s not important. The environments have to be imaginative and the characters have to be original. A key importance is the plot. It has to twist and turn in unexpected ways to keep me hooked.

Review Ramble

2008-11-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

NGJ? What’s that?

Well when it came to reading reviews in magazines I hardly ever bothered, I preferred the pretty pictures and the summaries but now reading through a few of the reviews and Wikipedia I’m beginning to understand New Games Journalism. I noticed that they are less of a straight to the point review. The writer seems to be more involved and tends to go back on past experiences. They seem to lack a definite scoring of the game, giving a more personal opinion. I much prefer this way of reviewing since it lacks a definite ranking for the game and gives a more general over view of the game.

I feel an objective ranking systems is not necessary for gaming sales. This is because there must be people out there who either ignore ranking or know their tastes well enough to pick a game without taking a second glance at ranking. Also if a game has a good design and is advertised well enough there will be atleast one person wanting it.

Finally I would like to touch up on other reviews and reviewers. I hardly buy magazines or reading a text so I’m terrible for finding game writing but I do have a liking for many video reviews of games. I tend to watch a lot of Zero Punctuation. It puts games through the ringer and is rather humorous.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation
He likes his swearing but none-the-less puts together humour and reviews ever so well.

Now I’m hoping this blog makes sense because I hated this and the last blog since my brain had become all clogged with junk and kept wandering off.

Errmmmmm....

2008-11-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

I’m not too sure where to start with this blog. Though I love gaming I have never really been one for reading reviews or magazines.

I looked over Kieron Gillen’s blog and I just love how he engages the reader. A small chunk of his review goes over how limitations affect the game journalists. He picks up about timing from the start of making a magazine to finish, meaning journalists have a only a short amount of time for contemplation. I feel personally time is a huge deal. Without deadlines the writing could be continually refined and more thought could be put into it. He wrote through past experiences rather then straight to the point.

After looking over Kieron Gillen’s review I looked over a review for Project Gotham Racing 3. As I read it I felt it was written less formally as the previous piece of text. I felt they had written it more as a fan then a reviewer. The text was much shorter and didn’t engage the reader as much as Kieron Gillen but it was right to the point.

When it comes to writing I myself am not comfortable. I much prefer trying to relay messages through drawings much like the next artist does. When it comes to writing I find myself prefer subjectivity to objectivity.

The now and the futurific

2008-10-17T03:46:00.000-07:00

The most recent history of video games focuses around the sixth generation and seventh generation of console. At the start of the millennium the Playstation 2 reigned supreme in the market, the Dreamcast was fading away, the GameCube was lacking mature games and the Xbox made it’s debut. There was also mutliple alternative controllers such as the dance mat for games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Maracas for Samba de Amigo and a Guitar for Guitar Heroes. Many people also turned to online massively multiplayer online role-playing game playing World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI.
In 2004 the seventh generation of consoles started as the Nintendo DS and the Playstation Portal were released. The major consoles then followed suite as the Xbox 360 came out along with the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. All three consoles are all quite different when it comes to playing and due to this the battle to be number one console has become tougher. A trend that has started to appear these days is exclusive games being released on other consoles which has meant that similar games have been released on all three consoles.

When it comes to future gaming I tend to keep my mind open and look at anything that takes my interest. I’m hoping to play the next Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy games and a game that has caught my eye that is to be released next year is Bayonetta. But when it comes to things as future consoles I would love to be able to play games on a system much like the one shown in the games and anime series .hack where the player wears a virtual reality headset and uses a controller making them seem like they are actually in the game. Even more farfetched from that idea is to be transported into the game directly making game play seem even more real and tangible.

The middle bits and gap filling

2008-10-17T03:45:00.000-07:00

In the early 1980s many of the first gaming computers were released, this included the Commodore 64, Apple II and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The 80s was also the era where the arcade games reached the golden age. In 1983 there was a crash in the video game company, which brought the end of the second generation consoles.
After the crash the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES) was released with the game Super Mario Bros. and it instantly became a hit. Along with the Super Mario Bros. coming out in the 80s many well known games were also brought out for the NES including Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda and Metal Gear.
Right at the end of the 80s the Sega Mega Drive was released starting the fourth generation of consoles. Nintendo released the Super NES in response to Sega’s console. It was on the fourth generation consoles that the first basic three-dimensional graphics entered the mainstream and this was visible in such games as Virtua Racing and Star Fox.
The fifth generation consoles appeared in the 1990s including the Playstation and the Nintendo 64. It was cartridge Vs. CD-ROMs throughout the 90s and though cartridges were unique among the consoles it was the CD-ROM that won, and by the end of the era Sony had become the leader in the video game market.

Throughout my history of gaming, after Duck Hunt, the NES console was updated to the SNES. This was when I was introduced to the game Star Fox. Other games that I played on the SNES included Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, Indiana Jones, Taz The Tasmanian Devil and the first game I ever completed which was Donkey Kong Country. While the SNES actually belonged to my brother I was brought a Gameboy in which I played Pokemon non-stop. I had a few other games for the Gameboy but they were hardly ever played.
It wasn’t long until my brother decided to buy a Playstation and I got introduced to the Tomb Raider series and the Final Fantasy series. Ever since playing the Playstation I have continued collect the Sony console allowing me to continue playing the Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider series.

Gaming, the early years and my rambling of games

2008-10-17T03:38:00.000-07:00

Video games seem to have started within the 50s when technology was definitely not at its finest but that never seemed to have stopped mankind. It was OXO, a version of tic-tac-toe created by A.S. Douglas was the first game to come out but a few years later William Higinbotham brought out “Tennis for Two” which was created for entertainment purposes rather then scientific. In the 60s SpaceWars! and Chase came out and it was in the 70s when Pong was released. If it wasn’t for the people from the 50’s who created dots and lines on computer screens I doubt that games would be as advanced as they are now and I wouldn’t be playing the games I play now.

The first game I ever played was Duck Hunt for the Nintendo Entertainment System where the aim was to shoot pixelated ducks with a gun, which for me was exciting more because of the large orange gun that came with the game and the crazy dog that poked its head out of the grass . This is a contrast to the game I have most recently played which is Dragoneer’s Arias for the Playstation Portable, a role-playing game which resembles a game I feel kept me playing video games. Though Duck Hunt is important in my gaming life it was Final Fantasy VII that got me truly hooked on video games. I can remember so vividly the opening sequence: the music starting up, the screech of the train brakes, the dingy lighting and eventually the main title. It was this game with it’s crazy plotline that made me continue playing Playstation games.