It doesn't slow down!

So having said that I'd post a blog post every Sunday I've managed to miss the first 2 Sundays since saying that... Such a successful plan!

Well I expected life to slow down somewhat after the year finished, it turns out it has stayed at the same pace. I managed to set up a long list of card alter commissions to do, expecting to be able to sit down for a few days and just get them all done. Weeeell... that hasn't happened, I've been getting them done but I've also been working on a self assigned group project I'm working on with 4 others from the course and I stayed with a friend in Barcelona for a couple of days.

Go to Barcelona... draw candles, about right?

A selection of initial concepts/ideas for the group project and the drawing from Spain(far left).

Final candle variation designs for the Old English Pub

So far on the first candle. High poly is far right, next to it is the 230 tri baked version with a basic diffuse.

Other than drawing a candle Barcelona was incredible and started to give me some ideas for what I may do for a rooftop project if we still get set that in 3rd Year. As I only had a couple of days there I didn't do quite as much as I wanted to and I was using my friend as a tour guide, I didn't go to Sagrada Familia. However we did wander up to some of the other Gaudi buildings, being a cheap student on a holiday I didn't go in to either of them but merely admired them from afar/sneaked into the gift shop to have a look at what we could see. From what I could see and images in books and everything I really want to go back and go onto the rooftop of the Casa Mila.

Casa Batllo

Casa Mila

Casa Mila (roof as seen on a poster outside)

Game Art Year 1

From the outset this course really felt like the right course for me. From the first week Visual Design has definitely been the module that I have struggled with the most, being continually challenged, whether that being skill or simply motivation. However whilst putting the compilation of work together to hand in to Chris I finally started to see that I have improved and that I have progressed in the year. Also I saw quite how much I've produced this year although I'm not particularly keen on much of the work I have produced, simply because I feel I could do better if I'd have had the time or if I'd worked harder.

First Week of Visual Design

Second to Last week of Visual Design

One thing that really stood out to me was the 3D elements of Visual Design, I often enjoyed these projects and found them helpful in realising how to work things out and create things in 3Ds Max. The physical side of the weapon project, although an improvised brief, was really enjoyable and helpful and fitted into the Game Production module very well. The cross over between both sides of the course was really nice and was really satisfying to have concepted, made and modeled something.

Game Production on the on the other hand is where I have been comfortable all year, I have enjoyed every project and I feel I've come a long way from the first week. Working in UDK this year really changed things for me, I felt at one point that each project showed us one tiny thing and just let us practice what we already knew but using engine really meant that we had to learn something new and allowed us to play around with various tools that we weren't told about but simply had to find out about and experiment with. So far it was my favourite project, I wish I could have done more to my scene and so it may end up as one of the things I look at setting myself as a project over the summer. I'm really, really excited to work on some projects over the summer months. I would say near the end the limitations started to become increasingly restricting on our learning if anything, I'm well aware that there are such limitations in industry but I feel it would be incredibly helpful to have say budgets for emissive textures or colour speculars or just simply more interesting things nearing the end of the year. The weapon was a fun project but I was really excited to use loads of things I had learnt and ended up being fairly limited as to what I could practice and what different things I could learn for the project.

Wheelie Bin Term 1

UDK Level Term 2

All in all the place I feel most annoyed at myself and feel I have performed the worst has been right here. The blogs, having stupidly said that time management is one of the things that I haven't had much of an issue with in the past, suddenly I'm confronted with an area that I'm having an issue with time management. I have found it difficult to keep up with blogs and not leave them to the last minute and I'm incredibly aware of this and it really annoys me. I'm going to try and challenge myself over the summer to write a blog once a week on a Sunday evening between 5-7pm I will right a blog about the work I have produced that week or about any interesting developments, this is a practice I hope will help me to keep up with the blogs during second year. Obviously spending more time where there are specific blog entries with required research to write.

Weapon From Found Objects

So being set a project to make stuff was instantly an awesome moment, I love physically making things and working out how things fit together. However during the first week of the project I found it incredibly difficult to find inspiration or access the correct type of items, its also incredibly difficult to work out where you're going with such an open ended project. For the first time I feel that I have created something designed, developed and not too complex; I find I don't normally manage that last bit very well. Below you can see my design, creation and 3D model.

London in the 20s!

This is awesome! take a look http://vimeo.com/7638752#

Incredible colour footage of 1920s London shot by an early British pioneer of film named Claude Friese-Greene, who made a series of travelogues using the colour process his father William - a noted cinematographer - was experimenting with. It's like a beautifully dusty old postcard you'd find in a junk store, but moving.

Reef Character!

So I'm always keen on the idea of character projects but never manage to realise my idea or even solidify an interesting idea. However I was quite pleased with how this project went. I'm not particularly happy with the final "in situ" painting but I've got to a point where I'm almost happy to leave it. I may get back to it over the summer some time.

  

UDK Intro: The Dell, Final Renders

With the assets produced so far this year there was a certain scene which came naturally; a small rural dell, or wooded valley.

I spent the first section of the project going through the old assets adjusting them and modifying them to use for the new scene, for example changing the gladiator mesh into a statue. After creating the collisions for all the assets I'd use I started to white box and come up with possibilities after finally coming up with a simple plan which I thought could show off my work for the year but also allow me to experiment with different elements of UDK. I then started to create the extra meshes that I'd use. Below are a selection of a couple of the extra assets I made for the level.

Here are the final renders of the level.

I'm actually really happy with the amount that I've learnt during this project and I feel confident that I can continue to improve upon this. I'm well aware of places that I need to improve and I'm excited about that. I'm really excited to start a self motivated project over the summer based around concepting and creating a map, whether that be based on a real place or not.

UDK: The Begining

Having used game engines such as SDK (source engine) and TES:CS (The Elder Scrolls: Construction Set) before to create levels, environments and experiment with stuff I was really excited to get to start using a game engine for the course. This I think has almost confirmed my thoughts that level design/environment design is really what I love doing. Below are a couple of screen shots of a couple of points of interest for my UDK_Intro level, more screenshots, maybe a fly through (if I can work out how to do it) to come!

Tools to be made and texturing to be finished on the work bench.

There is grass around the trees think the contrast with the sun made it appear incredibly dark.

Oh yea and I had some irritating issues with lightmaps which I'm still resolving... COW HOUSE