Week 24 – Final Blog

I personally think the course is really good; I like that your still trying to improve the course in many ways as you can. I think idea of introducing film onto the course is a bonus as I think we could take ideas from films in our work also maybe help to look at another career path as well to do 3d in film. As for the digital art, I guess I am quiet mixed about that, me being not that skill in digital painting in the first place and the doubling the workload would just destroy my confidence.

But I will during summer practice a lot on both my 3d and digital painting as I feel they are the areas I want to refine more. The idea of getting out of the lab more sounds excellent, being stuck in front of a computer isn’t exactly the best thing to do, so I am game for that. I have a had ago sculpting before I thought it was cool, so that would be a nice touch to course as it improve our knowledge on 3d and structure.

By the sounds of these ideas I think it will only benefit and help become even better and help to achieve our in getting into game industry.

Sencond year here I come………….hopefully?

Its been emotional!!!

Week 22 – The Love For Games

I thought seen as I can write whatever I want I thought I would tell you about my love for games. I don’t know why I love playing games, all I can say is that I am good them. I hear people on course saying that since they’ve come onto the course they have lost interest in playing video games. And think to myself no way, how can you want to be a game designer and lose interest in playing them. I guess in all line of work, if your doing it for a living you would lose interest in it eventually.

But as for me I don’t want that to happen cause then I know then ill lose interest in it all together. But as of right now I am still playing good quality games on the next generation consoles and I intend on keeping it that way.

As for GDC all I know is that Gears of War 2 was premiered there and I cant wait till it hits the shops, cause you know ill be the first one there to buy. Oh yea Mike, you are so lucky in going there.

Week 21 – Where you want to go? How do I get there?

I am just happy to be here to be taught from the best and to be taught in way were I am learning something new everyday. Iv always been quiet an ambitious person, and believe I can get through I this quiet smoothly. I know when I needed help with work I know I could turn to my lecturers and also my fellow course mates.

Ultimately I would love to go straight into a job in game industry, but to achieve I am going to have work extremely hard and produce work that can be call industry standard.

I am hoping to get a lot out of this course, I feel really committed to this as I am aware it’s the fifth best course in the whole of United Kingdom, but to keep it that way I believe teaching the students the necessary tools to get into the games industry is the main factor.

I must admit I came onto the course thinking that I would progress quiet smoothly, but then I was hit the reality that this course is no walk in park. In some cense I am glad its that way, cause the only way you can find out about yourself is through your mistakes, and I have made a lot of them on this course. I do believe giving me the time to develop my skills on the course I could become a great asset to university and to the games industry.

Getting to terms with 3d Max was something I found quiet a challenge, coming from an background of using Lightwave and become quiet sufficient in that software, it came as a culture shock to me to using 3d max, and also coming from a none artist background and a completely self taught artist, doing some of task were quiet a challenge. But these challenges will only just benefit me when it comes to the second, now I know what to improve on and what need to achieve in the coming years to become and game artist or a 3d modeller.
Ultimately the only way you can progress on this course is to keep yourself motivated and have an ambitious goal, that’s what keeps me going.

Week 20 – Creativity

I would say you can’t be taught creativity, you’re either born with it or your not. But if you could how would you do it? To explain creativity is hard in itself to be creative you need to understand and think in a way no one else would. I would say I am quiet creative but not as much as I want to be. I hear people saying that schools are depriving students of being creative. Instead of trying to find if the person is of creative nature, they instead rather feed them normal life system, get good grades and get a job. Rather then help or encourage their creativity we are being subjected to things that would ultimately makes us lose interest in the arts.

I would say maybe its true; in school I didn’t to any kind of art-based studies, because in them days I drew because it was a hobby. I knew my teachers saw me drawing and they would rather stop me being creative instead maybe pushing me into the right direction of maybe going into the arts. I did do graphic design, which in some cense is a creative study, but I was more working with computers then creating something with pencils and paints.. I guess leaving school made me realise that I could be a lot more creative with a pencil. Through a lot of practise I became a lot more aware that I could draw to fairly good standard, which then led to the pursuit of what I am doing now.

But when you talk about creativity in the games industry you are always working with restraints. Time schedules, budget, and poly counts. So when it comes to creativity whilst working you have work with them restraints.

I honestly believe Halo is the worst game I have ever played, it’s over hyped and to be honest completely original, if I was going to look at from a creative stand, I don’t think it is. People will argue but its so original, space, guns and aliens wow! I am going to pre order that now (yea right). I maybe over critical of this game but I see games such as uncharted drakes fortune, the game is beautiful, colours, environments, and the character models, but people wont appreciate that because there to busy shooting aliens? There’s were I see creativity fail, peoples perception of creativity is different from someone else’s.

But then it also shows you don’t have to be creative to create a brilliant game. There going to be people who are just going to go for the space age, alien shooter, maybe because gameplay is suited to their taste. Gameplay is another issues that involves creativity, because the most creative part of the game is the gameplay itself.

I believe the games industry is going t become even bigger in the future, I believe it will challenge the movie industry, I am surprised that its not already happened, cause you play games now that have better storylines and graphics that most high budget and CGI movies.
Now that’s creative!!!!

Week 19 – Life Changing or Career Building

To be honest I am just going to say that I am on the best course in the country in Game, Art and Design, although we are working hard on creating things on real life, we finding new ways on how we can incorporate these skills into games. Myself I must admit I am not the greatest of artists in terms drawing and painting, but when it comes to the 3d work I am quiet cool with. They say its ok to specialise, I would quiet happily have done that, but what this course teaches me is that there more to creating something in 3d.

I guess in other case or other course these topics are not issued and students are learning things they’ve already been taught or don’t have a clue of. While students or people are doing this a hobby are creating Japanese manga characters and building unnecessary objects, they could be learning about how to create things from life and then incorporating these skill into 3d, these are the skills and talents game companies are looking for. I believe by the end my time here on this course that will have the attributes to go out and get a job in the industry, I will admit it did take me time to realise how creating things form life is important because if you look now on how game are being created on the next generation console, every has to look real. Now I know the purpose of this course, I think this is a life changing and career building.

Week 18 – Games Technology - Sounds For Games

Sounds in games are so important that I don’t even appreciate it. Just like the movie industry sound or music can change the atmosphere and create a cense of emotion to a person. In games the same is applied, but with added bonus as the victory music or you just found a clue music and the mighty death music. These particular sounds can give you a feel of achievement but also a feeling of defeat.

I am going to give you an example of how music can give you those feelings. I was playing Call Of Duty 4 on Headquarters and we lost the game and this dreaded music played is if we just lost the whole war, then we played another game this we played as the Russians and we won and a high joyous anthem came on as if we won whole match, campaign and war. That’s why music is important in games, cause it can give that feeling and emotion.

I would say I am a massive fan of game composer, cause I don’t exactly sit there and listen to game music, its just there in the game (sorry if sound ignorant). But if there was a composer I would say I would admire it would be Nobuo Uematsu, the composer of all the Final Fantasy games. He reached a lot of success with his music and is probably well known for his work with Final Fantasy. He staged a live orchestral event for the Final Fantasy VIII album. I must be quiet honest with you the music to that game was awesome, from intro to end.

I guess favourite music peace in a game was the game over music in Metal Gear Solid, It made your heart beat fast and it made want to continue, and in the back you had either Roy Campbell or Ottacon screaming in vain for you. But yea that’s was some good and funny music. I could on to say in fighting games such as Tekken, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, the music in them games made you want to fight, it gave you desire and edge to fight, which is good as it allows for person to get involved in the game as well.

Week 17 – Games Technology – Games Engines

There are many different types of engines, some created for specific tasks. For example the widely used Havok engine, used to simulate realistic physics and 'Speedtree', which was used to generate the realistic trees and vegetation in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. These types of engines are know as middleware and are usually deigned be used in conjunction with other engines.

Companies tend to create their own engines or add to them to make them more powerful. In some cases other companies will use existing or other companies games engines for time and money saving purposes.

In an additive environment, the beginning consists of emptiness usually called the void. The void is endless and empty. When the designer creates something, for example a room, he creates a space within the void by sealing it off - the easiest way to do this is to simply create a hollow cube. Something like a vast landscape with a beautiful sky is created by first designing the terrain, buildings, trees et cetera, and then surrounding it all with a skybox, a large hollow box, the insides of which show the sky. This box is necessary to keep the void out, since the world and the void must always be kept separate. A hole in the world is called a leak, since the void is leaking in.

As is probably obvious, a subtractive environment is the opposite of an additive environment. In a subtractive environment, there is no void. Before there is a world, there is only an infinite solid. To create a world, designers must subtract bits from this infinite solid, creating hollow spaces for the user (player) to exist in. This eliminates the possibility of leaks, but many designers still favour the additive environment because it is easier to manipulate. In fact, a known way of working around the subtractive style editing is by first subtracting a huge cube, creating a void (of sorts) in the middle of the infinite solid - and then working additively in the middle of this (fake) void, expanding it as necessary.

The advantages are in buying new games engines, getting to terms with the new technology, and knowing what is next in the evolution of gaming, gameplay and visuals.