tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71226676656612165952024-03-13T04:50:47.975-07:00Joe Dempsey Game ArtJoe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-44472578816521720722013-12-11T07:20:00.001-08:002014-01-12T05:58:47.715-08:00Codemasters Professional Brief - Vehicle/ Material Project<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The second professional practice brief of the year was a vehicle/ material focused brief set by Codemasters. I had been anticipating this project from the beginning of the year, as you're probably aware, vehicles are kind of my thing!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As mentioned the task was focused on two elements, the first was to create a vehicle within a scene, the second was to use the real time shaders provided especially by Codemasters. Emphasis was on the second aim in order to demonstrate the material properties displayed on the vehicle using the shaders provided as well as this we also had to focus on the final presentation of our vehicle scene considering the lighting set-up as the final renders had to be in real time. An example scene was provided by Codemasters which was to aid us during the process, having never used specific shaders before the example scene meant I had the opportunity to pull it apart and explore it in order to see how best to use the shadrers so that we could spend more time focusing on the art.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In consideration to my last project, the Rooftop Project, where I had lost quite a bit of time for various reasons including spending too much time at the beginning of the project concepting ideas, for this project I wanted to get straight into it. I had two options, to design a new vehicle or to choose an existing vehicle. Obviously I chose the latter, one, for the reasons mentioned above and secondly I felt that my familiarity with vehicles in general, especially my chosen vehicle a motorcycle, would give me an advantage in delivering certain key features including the variety of material properties within the vehicle. The vehicle I chose was a Ducati Desmosedici RR, a rare and exotic motorbike in its own right, see photo below;</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_phc6mjY8Sc/UqoEm5fZg9I/AAAAAAAAArc/p3wHPdE4GJI/s1600/2008-ducati-desmosedici-rr-photo-258794-s-1280x782.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_phc6mjY8Sc/UqoEm5fZg9I/AAAAAAAAArc/p3wHPdE4GJI/s640/2008-ducati-desmosedici-rr-photo-258794-s-1280x782.jpg" height="392" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before modelling I went straight to the-blueprints.com to purchase and download blueprints for the bike but these were lacking a lot of the smaller details which are more visible on a motorbike in comparison to a car such as cables, levers and more engine components so I also downloaded examples of orthographic images of the bike, I used both of these reference images within the viewport when modelling and found it helped to move between one or the other depending on the amount of detail I wanted to capture in that particular area of the model. For the front reference of the bike I even merged the orthographic image and blueprint in Photoshop.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Wu9XK9k_Xcg/UqobVGmAl1I/AAAAAAAAAr8/t2zjJxO4rK4/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Wu9XK9k_Xcg/UqobVGmAl1I/AAAAAAAAAr8/t2zjJxO4rK4/s640/5.jpg" height="200" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
began by setting up my reference images inside the 3D Studio Max scene,
which was more difficult than I had first hoped. It was important
that all of the projected drawings matched each other in the various
viewports of 3DS Max so that I didn't run into any difficulties
during the modelling stage, particularly with this being a motorbike,
the details are more confined and even the flow lines of the body
work are much tighter than you would usually find with a car so it
was important that this wasn't affected by poor planning and set-up.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once
set-up I quickly began modelling and experimenting with various
methods, such as starting the model in different viewports. I also
began to box model the vehicle but it became quickly apparent that
this was not going to be the best way of modelling the vehicle.
Again, because of the tight and varying flow-lines within the body
work, it was vital that the topology of my vehicle was as good as
possible to mimic this within my model.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-mFMdKWe4c/UqocutX-P3I/AAAAAAAAAsI/JyQSY-4uTgw/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-mFMdKWe4c/UqocutX-P3I/AAAAAAAAAsI/JyQSY-4uTgw/s640/6.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
quickly abandoned this method and began to planar model the vehicle,
it gives you much more flexibility when it comes to
smaller more organic shape modelling like this and probably why its more
commonly used with character modelling too.I was also going to have to worry more about my tri-limit budget later
on, right now is was about getting the core elements and shapes of
the vehicle in place as well as clean topology. I could then look
into refining the geometry towards completion.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NqdUMi8rcWk/UqodJ4GOvWI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/lz47Vboqnic/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NqdUMi8rcWk/UqodJ4GOvWI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/lz47Vboqnic/s640/7.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As
you can see from the screen shot above, the planar modelling
method was extremely effective in achieving the smooth transitions
within the geometry. As explained, I was also having to be quite
generous with my tri's to begin with to ensure that all of the
elements to the vehicle, the mentioned smooth changing directional
bodywork, swooping front and side vents for example were as accurate
as possible.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
next stage for me was to begin modelling some of the larger elements
of the bike to begin getting an idea of the overall look of the model
as well as the scale and position of these different elements such as
the wheels, the brakes and forks etc.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All
of these elements were done in the first few days and I was extremely
happy with how quickly the project was moving along. I was really
enjoying modelling the bike, as I had the chance to work on something
I have a passion for away from uni anyway and as initially thought,
this seemed to be paying off.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The next stage for me was to
begin modelling the petrol tank and seat unit as well as begin
modelling other smaller parts such as the handle bars, frame work,
swing arm and chain etc. For some unknown reason I began to attempt
to box model the petrol tank again. I clearly hadn't learnt from my
mistakes! Again, it became quickly apparent that the tank would be
best planar modelled. I actually found the tank very hard to model as
it has various small changes of shape and direction in a very
confined space with made it hard to model with limited tri's. I
also began to apply simple colours to my standard materials just to
give me an idea of how the vehicle would look as a final composition,
which helped a great deal.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fjAu_OJkfOk/UsWNw7eLEGI/AAAAAAAAAsg/YzrQNSsoYlI/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fjAu_OJkfOk/UsWNw7eLEGI/AAAAAAAAAsg/YzrQNSsoYlI/s640/8.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Another
smaller part of the vehicle still having to be modelled was the
mirrors. I decided to do this in a separate Max file which I then
imported into the vehicle file. I found modelling the mirror
extremely difficult, for some reason I just could not get the shape
right at first despite numerous attempts, and found it almost
impossible to model the mirror to match both the front and side
reference images. Again this was something I had to compensate for in
using my judgement in order to make it look right. Again, I also had
difficulty maintaining a low tri count for the mirror given its small
size and it complex shape.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Time in week two was running out as
I began to model the final smaller details of the bike. Despite starting so quickly, getting
all of the detail I intended into the vehicle was taking longer than
I first thought. Every time I looked at my reference photographs and
then back to my model there seemed to be a different part I had
missed each time which was becoming quite frustrating. Considering I
had already well hit my tri-limit there just seemed to be more and
more parts needing to be modelled.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At
this point, because I was well over my tri-limit by a few thousand
tri's I felt it was necessary to split my vehicle so that I had two.
With one I could continue to model all of the smaller details without
having to worry about the tri-limit which would be my high-poly model
and the other I could begin to re-fine and re-topologize the geometry
and begin to bring the tri count back down towards the budget.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f40ddF36wts/UsWRJbMuTdI/AAAAAAAAAs4/T_UZEr8DuUM/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f40ddF36wts/UsWRJbMuTdI/AAAAAAAAAs4/T_UZEr8DuUM/s640/10.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U8iggapdZeE/UsWSBH3uchI/AAAAAAAAAtE/N7sFLdetm0o/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U8iggapdZeE/UsWSBH3uchI/AAAAAAAAAtE/N7sFLdetm0o/s400/11.jpg" height="225" title="" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Week
two had almost come to an end and although I hadn't finished my
vehicle as planned I had began to explore the example scene provided
and explore how it had been set up. It seemed as though I could
follow a very similar set-up for my own vehicle despite it being
nothing alike. I planned on placing my vehicle within a pit-lane
garage with an obstructed view of the pit-lane and pit-lane wall
outside. I began by modelling a very simple layout, similar to the
example scene and placing my vehicle inside to get a feel for how it
would sit within the environment. I also used the same method for
creating my sky as in the example scene by squashing half of a sphere
and creating a high resolution panoramic image from photographs of a
day-time landscape that could be applied to the sphere/ dome.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
was also able to pull apart the textures from the example scene as
well as experimenting with the shaders in a new Max file to give
myself an idea of how they would function seen as I would be
texturing my vehicle in week three now. I explored how the diffuse
textures had been done with the specular in the alpha channel which
would tell the shader how to use the reflection map on the model.
Once I had explored how this effected the reflection map within Max
it actually became quite straightforward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
was now halfway through the project and I had gradually fallen behind
again, but hopefully this time I hadn't bitten off more than could
chew and I was still confident that, especially now I was familiar
with the shaders and the processes involved with using them I would
still be able to finish the project to a high standard. <br /><br />Now
that both of my high and low-poly vehicles were modelled I could
unwrap my low poly. Unwrapping was the usual story, the same old
stuff that takes 10 times longer than you had originally hoped! The
main thing again with the unwrap was to make sure I utilised all of
the texture space and considered which parts of the vehicle would
demand the most detail in the texture. Below is the final UV's;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After
unwrapping the vehicle I was able to then bake the high-poly model
onto the low poly, because I had only included more defined high
detail elements such as the petrol cap, seat unit vents and nuts and
bolts I also planned on putting some smaller details into the normal
map using Photoshop and nDo2 such as the tyre tread and speckled
paint effect on the frame work and brake calipers. Below is an
example of the models before and after baking. From left to right is
the high-poly model (31,754 tris), centre is the low-poly model
(10,812 tris) and then the low poly model with the normals. </span>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CSXzud3zc9g/UsWUWKDUX7I/AAAAAAAAAtM/SlTrCRgeHaU/s1600/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CSXzud3zc9g/UsWUWKDUX7I/AAAAAAAAAtM/SlTrCRgeHaU/s640/12.jpg" height="232" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
final task for the week was to complete the diffuse texture and
specularity map in the alpha channel of the diffuse, they are shown
below;</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gsng_MKr_4c/UsWVUvOmBMI/AAAAAAAAAtU/Cc3AAJn6yk8/s1600/13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gsng_MKr_4c/UsWVUvOmBMI/AAAAAAAAAtU/Cc3AAJn6yk8/s640/13.jpg" height="320" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PByl5JYPi8k/UsWV7XvlchI/AAAAAAAAAtc/x3FpQWUTubo/s1600/14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PByl5JYPi8k/UsWV7XvlchI/AAAAAAAAAtc/x3FpQWUTubo/s320/14.jpg" height="320" width="189" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Throughout
the texturing process I continually exchanged between Photoshop and
3D Studio Max, now running in Direct3D to inspect how the textures
rendered on the model with the shaders. As mentioned in the brief,
due to the particular format of the shaders so I had to duplicate the
texture in a multi-sub material in order to achieve the desired
material effects for my vehicle. Although the reflectiveness should
be dictated in the alpha channel of the diffuse I also wanted more
control using the parameters within the shaders themselves, so for
example I could have the body work of the bike really shiny and
reflective but the rubber of the tyres quite dull, as in the example
scene I also wanted a diffuse texture with an alpha for the screen of
the motorbike so this also had to be done in a separate material.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
able to achieve the range of material properties I wanted by using 6
multi-sub materials as shown to the right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Below
is an example of my vehicle in the viewport with the materials
applied;</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rY6mDT8Eacg/UsWWDXYrWtI/AAAAAAAAAtk/qPOX0aODXBc/s1600/15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rY6mDT8Eacg/UsWWDXYrWtI/AAAAAAAAAtk/qPOX0aODXBc/s640/15.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now
that my vehicle was completely finished I had to complete my
environment and place the vehicle within it. Again, after exploring
how the example scene was set up I followed the same method by
texturing my environment using a variety of simple textures on a
multi-sub material using the DirectX Xoliulshader_1.6 shader.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For
some reason I encountered lots of problems with the viewport now that
I was in the new environment file. Problems such as;</span></div>
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<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
viewport being too dark</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Materials
no showing correctly</span></div>
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<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Textures
showing at a very poor resolution</span></div>
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</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This
took some time to correct, simply by changing various setting within
the viewport configuration as well as comparing how I had set my own
scene up with the example scene. I think most of the problem was that
the scene had to be displayed only using the default lights, but
because there had to be textures applied with light maps the scene
was showing too dark. I also managed to combat the problem further
before applying the textures by setting the viewport configuration,
and under the 'lighting and shadows' tab change the illuminate scene
to use 2 default lights which helped massively.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One
other thing that helped improve the look of the environment within
the viewport itself was to change to field of view of the viewport to
around 90.0, again taken from the example scene, which improved the
aesthetics of the scene when exploring the viewport.
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zmn6z3TVUQg/UsWWdh60ybI/AAAAAAAAAts/Yimg-WlTIy8/s1600/16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zmn6z3TVUQg/UsWWdh60ybI/AAAAAAAAAts/Yimg-WlTIy8/s320/16.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once
the environment was unwrapped an textured I needed to work out how to
bake a light map, this again involved a lot of trial and error baking
a variety of different textures to see which yielded the best
results. In order to save the baked texture and apply it I had to
unwrap the whole environment again within a separate channel. This
was easy to do quickly and a good enough result could be achieved by
simply using the flatten mapping tool. Once this was done it was
simply a case of using the render to texture tool to render the
shadow map using id channel 2. The shadow map render is shown right;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After
completing the environment with lightmap applied, the next step was
to complete the cube map. Again this was a new problem presented by
the project, but again, using the example scene and brief provided
everything seemed quite straightforward. I completed my cubemap by
importing the camera rig from the example scene into my own, I then
increased the field of view until I was happy I'd gotten enough of my
environment in the screen grab. Using these screen grabs I then
composed my cubemap in Photoshop. My final cubemap is shown below; </span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once
I had completed my final renders and post processed them in Photoshop
the next step was to create a video. Fortunately I have some
experience using Windows Movies Maxker to complete a decent
professional looking video. I did encounter numerous problems which
had to be resolved.<br /><br />To render a video from the viewport, once
I had set a camera up with key-frames, Max has an extremely useful
feature under tools – Views – grap viewport and create animated
sequence file. Unfortunately this only rendered out at 4:3, to change
my renders to 16:9 I used Adobe after affects. With all of my video
together in Windows Movie maker I also composed some music with sound
effects using the program Audacity to compliment the final video.
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=227rElO1DPo"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=227rElO1DPo</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am
extremely happy with the outcome of this project and especially the
final product inc the renders and video. I feel that I was able to
understand the example scene very well and solve lots of new problems
presented by this unique project. As per usual there are some aspects
of the project that could be improved with time, I feel that the
diffuse texture could benefit well from more surface properties to
really sell the look of the individual materials of the vehicle. The
environment also could of benefited from a more varied lighting
set-up between the outside and the garage.<br /><br />My main issue with
the outcome of this project that has had some effect on my work flow
at the end has been the fact that I shared my work with others a few
days before the deadline. This resulted in endless requests for help
and information on a variety of issues including the lightmap baking,
creating the cubemap and creating the video from the viewport. I
really don’t mind helping others, but when I've spent a lot of my
time learning these things for myself and solving these problems, it
seems a bit unfair for other people to just request this knowledge
without having looked into anything themselves. I honestly believe
that some of my peers would not have completed certain aspects of the
project if I hadn't of shared my knowledge of these things with them.</span></div>
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Ducati Desmosedici RR (<a href="http://sketchfab.com/show/8345d3e2d8214d3d9396cb2b694dbae3" target="_blank" title="View this on Sketchfab">click to view in 3D</a>)</h3>
;<a href="http://sketchfab.com/show/8345d3e2d8214d3d9396cb2b694dbae3" target="_blank" title="Ducati Desmosedici RR"></a><br />
<div style="background-size: cover; background: url(http://sketchfab.com/img/sketchfab-play.png) no-repeat; cursor: pointer; height: 82px; left: 183px; position: absolute; top: 140px; width: 82px;">
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<a href="http://sketchfab.com/show/8345d3e2d8214d3d9396cb2b694dbae3" target="_blank" title="Ducati Desmosedici RR"><img alt="Ducati Desmosedici RR" src="http://sketchfab.com/urls/8345d3e2d8214d3d9396cb2b694dbae3/1386775904/thumbnail_448.png" /></a>Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-41549344957622153272013-11-15T13:40:00.001-08:002014-01-12T05:57:14.671-08:00Year Three - well and truly underway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'd be better starting this blog with some swearing, but im just going to go with blimey. Blimey! time is moving on quickly and im already well into my third year and the second project of the semester. The thought of keeping up to date with my blogs keeps creeping into the back of my mind and somehow it seems to escape me each time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Suffice to say im already struggling with my time management. The last few weeks have been quite hectic to say the least and there's been some positives and negatives to come from this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The main positive to come during the past weeks has been that Pudding Lane Productions, (the group I was a member of during the group projects last year), won the Crytek and British Library Off The Map competition which was announced at Game City in Nottingham at the end of October. The team were invited to a QandA at the Crytek studios in Nottingham before the event which was great. The team got some excellent feedback on the level and I was able to ask some more personal questions in regards to my employability concerning my more complex situation at home. The team then attended an event in the evening where we were announced the winners of the competition!</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FryCcKhfipw/UoaAPSmg2dI/AAAAAAAAAqg/PiDeOMRyJqY/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FryCcKhfipw/UoaAPSmg2dI/AAAAAAAAAqg/PiDeOMRyJqY/s640/1.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The response the team have had since winning the competition has just been insane, something we really weren't expecting when we first set out on the project in February. The story has been featured on almost every reputable news and gaming website, we've had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from both the mainstream media and the general public and over the last few weeks our Youtube video of the fly-through of our finished level has almost reached 400k views which is just staggering. The whole thing has been quite overwhelming in all honesty and, at first, I don't think some of the team members quite grasped how big winning the competition had become as the team and our work are now being showcased all over the world. The team have now had numerous offers from a variety of different sources in regards to using the work we have done further and even developing it but at the moment, with all of the third year projects everything else is unfortunately on hold. Some responses I think I'm personally most proud of though is reading comments from people telling us that they are primary school teachers who are using our video in their classes to teach history and I think that, that is just awesome and exactly the kind of thing we wanted to demonstrate how video game technology can be used in so many different areas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unfortunately, the Off The Map event took most of the days out of my week for various different reasons and this had a major knock on effect to my first project of the year which was the Rooftop project. I'm really upset about this because I feel I had a really strong idea to go with. Admittedly I was too ambitious with what I wanted to achieve and may not have come to an adequate finish even with the extra days I lost but I'm confident that I could of added some finishing touches and polished what I had if i hadn't of lost those days.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My Rooftop project idea was to build a hub for a near futuristic world where hover cars are the norm, taking inspiration from The Fifth Element in particular and also Blade Runner, so the rooftop would effectively become a street scene/ landing strip for hover vehicles to land and park. Again, I was too ambitious with the scale I chose to build the level, and, if I where to do it again I would certainly build at a much smaller scale and aim to include more detail, which of course would be more achievable. So, at the moment my Rooftop is not at a place where I would be at all happy to include in my portfolio, basically, its unfinished, but there is still potential to pull it back I feel. I need to add lots of detail such as doors and windows to my buildings as well as a lot of surface detail/ decals such as cracks/ road markings/ erosion etc that would really sell the material properties within my level and inject a lot more life into it. Below are just some final screen grabs to give you an example of the stage i did reach before the hand in;</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4wh5jy8aiKs/UoaFXWC8ZGI/AAAAAAAAAqw/iqdmN14h0Zo/s1600/9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4wh5jy8aiKs/UoaFXWC8ZGI/AAAAAAAAAqw/iqdmN14h0Zo/s640/9.jpg" height="452" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As you can see from the screen shots above, some of the fundamental elements of the level have been nailed including the warm colour palette I was aiming for in contrast to typical sci-fi/ futuristic environments, most of the base, tile-able textures are in and sit on the mesh nicely, the level itself is interesting in its layout and great to explore including the upper and lower levels and some smaller details have begun to populate the level including the glowing cats-eyes on the landing strips, working traffic lights and crossing signals and other smaller props including traffic cones, railings, lamp posts, phone boxes, information boards as well as area specific props inside the garage and fuel station and a chrome material and glow tubes on the diner for example.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Despite feeling quite negative about its current state, the level clearly still has potential and provides a strong base to build upon to finish it. I would like to go back to it, sooner rather than later, and inject that final detail that the level is crying out for in order to make it more presentable but I'm struggling at the moment to find when that will be. I was hoping to come back to this at Christmas but the third year seems to be relentless with its work load, there are still two more projects to hand in before Christmas, one of which i will have time to work on during the Christmas break as well as beginning to finalise ideas for my FMP and begin developing the brief and getting work underway. Currently I'm working every available second I have and it still doesn't seem to be enough time to get the work done so I'm not sure if this will happen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm currently working on the second professional practice brief which is a vehicle and material project set by Codemasters, one of the companies I've talked about and shown a clear interest in working for, so I really want to finish this project to a high standard. I will post some updates on that project very soon. </span></div>
Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-47313475870670148392013-10-06T15:21:00.004-07:002013-10-06T15:32:33.425-07:00Summer's Over, and My Third and Final Year Begins!<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Glad to be back for one last run, the
final hurdle, the last hurrah, the final sprint and so on and so
forth. But before I kick it into gear for my third and final year,
(which rhymes), I'd like to briefly discuss my thoughts at the end
of year two and my summer holiday which included the release of my
second year results.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The sense of relief when I walked into
the office to hand in my documentation for the group project, a
document which totalled 80 pages mind, was, somewhat inappropriately,
better than that of a sexual nature, as they say. The whole of the
second year, in particularly the final group project had left me
unbelievably drained, I can honestly say that I'd given it my all,
and considering I'd just driven 2 hours from Warrington to hand my
design document in for 10am after a Whitesnake concert the night
before, I was certainly ready for the summer break! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm
fairly sure I took some time to relax over the summer, but I cant
seem to remember as I was also very busy. Very busy enjoying myself
though so I suppose its swings and roundabouts. I did start the
summer with some work though, call me crazy, but it seems I cant get
enough of it! During the year I'd had a message from some friends of
the family who had been admiring my work on Facebook, I'd been best
of friends with their son throughout school and sadly his dad had
developed cancer and was not very well. They had asked for a piece of
work from my second year but as a surprise I wanted to do an original
drawing for them, something purposeful and meaningful as a gift so I
began to scour their facebook pages for a photograph. I came across
an image of Steve (my friends dad) with one of his sons who just so
happens to be a helicopter pilot in the RAF, even flown with Prince
William, of the both of them in a helicopter with all of the gear on!
I had second thoughts about choosing this piece initially as it was
an extremely technical drawing and I wouldn't of been able to finish
it to the standard I achieved without full dedication.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It
seemed mad beginning such a task only one day into the summer break,
but I hadn't done a pencil drawing for what seemed like an eternity
and perhaps it was a chance for me to warm down after such hard work.
I completed the drawing, which was A4 size, in roughly 40 hours and I
am extremely proud of it. I bordered it and framed it for Steve and
his wife and was able to take it to them during my first week home
with the parents. I can only hope they were happy with it, which I
have a slight hunch they were, and that they are able to cherish it.
I am also proud to have the drawing displayed on my online portfolio
currently which is simply entitled Steve. Steve sadly passed away
towards the end of the summer which was extremely sad, he was a much
loved person and will be sorely missed by all of those around him, his
wonderful family and his many friends. </span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oJDJdxsNXGM/UlHgh0m_J1I/AAAAAAAAAps/LN21DWXa2gM/s1600/945651_445567662206053_439250683_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oJDJdxsNXGM/UlHgh0m_J1I/AAAAAAAAAps/LN21DWXa2gM/s400/945651_445567662206053_439250683_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As mentioned the bulk of the summer
break was filled with plenty of activities, Sophia turned 22 in July
and we spent the weekend in London, having the opportunity to visit
the new skyscraper The Shard which was an incredible experience, and
the Harry Potter studios the following day which was extremely
enjoyable. If you enjoy the Harry Potter films then I'd certainly
recommend going, the sets and props contained within the studios were
just breath taking and whether I end up with a career within the
games industry or the films industry, Harry Potter is certainly one
of those phenomenal once in a life time productions that any artist
would dream to be a part of. <br /><br />Download festival shortly
followed which was once again a unbelievable weekend. Rammstein were
the highlight of the weekend, despite admittedly not being a huge fan
their set was breathtaking. Unbelievable pyrotechnics, guitars with
flame throwers on the end and fireworks which fired across the
audience.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did I mention that at this point 2<sup>nd</sup>
year results had been posted on MyDMU?, and despite not really being
able to make head nor tale of the numbers I was being presented with,
they were at least higher than last year, which seems reasonable to
assume that I'd done well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mid way through the summer me and
Sophia attended the Manchester comic-con which was a great day. As
per usual lots of money was spent, (I managed to obtain some great
horror comic series!) and we even had the opportunity to meet the
actor Warwick Davis who signed our copy of Life's Too Short in which
he stars (which I highly recommend watching as it is incredibly
funny!). </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AyhDamZgKDM/UlHhEYQHZbI/AAAAAAAAAp0/YIq8_GAwtGA/s1600/IMG_2109.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AyhDamZgKDM/UlHhEYQHZbI/AAAAAAAAAp0/YIq8_GAwtGA/s640/IMG_2109.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I spent most of my free weekends
fishing as a way of trying to relax. After months of sitting in front
of a computer screen for 15 hours a day it felt good to be outdoors,
especially considering the good weather we were graced with. Yet,
fishing can have a funny way of being ever so slightly stressful,
especially when you're getting into all kinds of impossible
knots!<br /><br />At the beginning of August me and Sophia spent another
night in London to attend the Iron Maiden concert at the O2 arena!
The 20,000 seater arena sold out in 12 minutes and I know why. They were
awesome!<br /><br />The end of the summer seemed to be fast approaching.
Time flies when you're having fun! And I hadn't really done much more
work. I'd attempted a few digi paints here and there just to keep my
hand in and I decided to begin working on a 3D model. I had the
thought that if I at least begin something and spend a few hours a
week on it, then I'd at least be familiarising myself with the
pipeline ready to get back into the full swing of things. I decided
to try and model an old motorcycle which my dad had owned when he was
19, a Honda 400 four. It's an extremely interesting subject,
particularly for myself but very technical, and I'd go as far as to
say its one of the hardest things I've ever tried to model. I've only
gotten so far with it but I hope to try and finish it in my spare time
during the year;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In September we attended the MotoGP at
Silverstone for the whole weekend which was awesome. I've only ever
been for the race day in previous years but to be able to enjoy
200bhp motorcycle's for a whole weekend with the likes of Cal
Cruthlow and Valentino Rossi was a fantastic weekend.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And so came final preparations for my
final return to DMU. I told you I'd been busy during the summer!, and
that was being brief! In my next post I'll talk about how it feels to have reached my final year, my aims for the year and how my aspirations
for the future continue to develop and change in light of my current
situation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />To be continued....... </span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-74376664621698649402013-05-27T06:20:00.001-07:002013-05-27T06:20:51.845-07:00Visual Design - A Little Catch Up!<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Despite
the group project work, I have actually been doing some independent
visual design work. Without saying too much, here are some examples of
the visual design work I have done during the second semester this
year with a small description of what the work was for.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AwTXqphpolY/UaNVK5mSWSI/AAAAAAAAAn0/lBKVz8Qq_24/s1600/final1+darker+edges.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AwTXqphpolY/UaNVK5mSWSI/AAAAAAAAAn0/lBKVz8Qq_24/s640/final1+darker+edges.jpg" width="456" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Leicester City Centre studies;</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I decided to try and create something interesting from a fairly dull subject and I was extremely pleased with the result. I still don't like digital painting as I feel that there is something fundamentally missing compared to a traditional piece of work but I am becoming more confident with the medium and the processes involved. </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uOakn8v6geA/UaNSfq87EuI/AAAAAAAAAnU/Q6Ilm2PvZA0/s1600/environfinal2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="338" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uOakn8v6geA/UaNSfq87EuI/AAAAAAAAAnU/Q6Ilm2PvZA0/s640/environfinal2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mortal Engines, final character self portrait in an environment;</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I actually took inspiration from this piece from the new Tomb Raider game's art book where the character was posed in a similar manner, the piece also had a lot of contrast to it. This piece is representative of the part of the story when Chrysler Peavy's pirate town of Tunbridge Wheels is attacked on its approach to Black Island and sinks.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1shJEHrwvE8/UaNX7KONl5I/AAAAAAAAAoE/t3uLprPhMXw/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1shJEHrwvE8/UaNX7KONl5I/AAAAAAAAAoE/t3uLprPhMXw/s640/1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Book Character Final;</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This project involved choosing a favourite book character and creating a concept. I chose to draw 'The Man in Black' from the Stephen King novels The Dark Tower. More than anything, this project was a wonderful opportunity to produce a nice traditional piece that I'd not had the opportunity to do for a good while.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tM7VbSdinVQ/UaNYk3CA8pI/AAAAAAAAAoM/zP6pV2pWWXg/s1600/final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tM7VbSdinVQ/UaNYk3CA8pI/AAAAAAAAAoM/zP6pV2pWWXg/s640/final.jpg" width="456" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Masters Study Final, James Gurney;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This year, our masters study project was to create a piece in the style of a master instead of just re-creating a piece. I struggled to find something that I liked but would also provide me with a challenge. I really wanted to avoid digital painting but with my skills improving I thought it best to stick at it. I decide to do a piece in the style of Jame's Gurney's Dinotopia, but, where as most of his pieces seem to be set in old, historical fantasy cityscapes I decided to take the opposite approach and, still using reference from some of his work, do my piece set in a modern sci-fi world. I received a very positive response for the piece! </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nXD2xM3tFMw/UaNaCUo3WuI/AAAAAAAAAoc/dLMs1-g6BgA/s1600/moonshine-running11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="410" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nXD2xM3tFMw/UaNaCUo3WuI/AAAAAAAAAoc/dLMs1-g6BgA/s640/moonshine-running11.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Self set, Moonshiners Project, 'Moonshiners Running';</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our year was given the opportunity to set ourselves a weekly project. A few ideas were put on the table and debated as to what would provide us all with the most scope for creativity. The subject chosen was '1920's Moonshiners'. At first I wasn't to interested in the subject, I had preferred others. The project was meant to give us all the opportunity to work on individual areas we were interested in whether that be characters, environments, vehicles etc. I really didn't know what to do, but after a little hunting for reference a great idea popped into my head! I aimed to complete a concept piece with all three elements, character, environment and vehicle. Will i never make things easy for myself? Well, I enjoy a challenge and I aimed to create a car chase concept with a hillbilly drinking moonshine. I also made my final piece into a kind of old, racing type sign. I'm not entirely sure how well I pulled off the whole piece though?</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u5UuxQTKcZA/UaNcmFtz_WI/AAAAAAAAAo8/u7QLeIltFPk/s1600/final1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="394" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u5UuxQTKcZA/UaNcmFtz_WI/AAAAAAAAAo8/u7QLeIltFPk/s640/final1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kAYHcNjrvdw/UaNcmu5I96I/AAAAAAAAApA/6IHVEmkNcFY/s1600/final2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="394" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kAYHcNjrvdw/UaNcmu5I96I/AAAAAAAAApA/6IHVEmkNcFY/s640/final2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Interior Project;</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The final visual design work I would like to share with you for the time being is the interior project. Initially meant to be a bar interior concept project, I noticed a few students who were trying different things. I also wasn't very interested in the bar idea and decided again to try something in the area I would like to be part of possibly, car design. I aimed to produce a number of simple, but stylistic perspective interior car concepts, to be extravagant with style, design and colour. I think in the future I would like to work further on the process and begin to eventually even work some surface properties into the concepts. And yes, both concepts are left hand drive! I've had some stick for that, although the pieces can easily be flipped, from my research most concept cars seem to be left hand drive. I have no idea why that is though.<br /><br />Thanks for looking! Joe.</span></span></div>
Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-4212465963310105772013-05-27T05:08:00.001-07:002013-05-31T17:30:24.277-07:00Life Changing or Career Building? - If we evolved from apes, then why are there still apes?<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There
are some things you just cant teach.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Okay, so
maybe there are things that can't be taught, but this doesn't mean
that those same things cant be learnt. Odd isn't it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This
blog is the perfect opportunity for me to follow on from my previous
post regarding creativity and education and to hopefully discover
more in regards to my own perceptions surrounding good education.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've
read many arguments for which is better to teach, technical skills or
'soft' skills. In a nut shell, technical skills are more advanced,
job specific skills such as maths, science and languages etc. Hmmm,
what the hell are 'soft' skills. I suppose I would define soft skills
as having the ability to take a more thoughtful approach to things,
perhaps even new and innovative approaches. As from my last blog
post, technical skills teach you that one answer is correct, the rest
are wrong, soft skills give one the ability to explore multiple
answers and question them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I agree
with a select few arguments, that these skills go hand in hand and
compliment each other, I personally would desire a balance of each
set of skills, and preferably be strongly skilled in both areas.
Other opinions clearly favour soft skills though, apparently because
today, technical skills quickly become outdated, especially with the
advancement of technology. I don’t think I agree with this. Of
course we now live in a world were technology progresses more and
more rapidly all of the time, but how much do the fundamental
components of technology really change? Do you know it has taken
thousands of millions of years for life to form on planet Earth? And
do you know that over all this time, we still share almost 99% of DNA
with our brothers the primates?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is
technology any different? Really? You know, the controls I learnt to
use to watch a VHS tape on my old CRT TV when I was 6 years old
really isn't much different to the controls I use to control my
blu-ray player on my brand new HD, 3D, smart TV. My point is that I
really don’t agree that things change that drastically in one life
time or a thousand years. Things improve, which is just wonderful,
but the fundamental technical skills are so vital in order to
continue to develop new skills all of the time, without the base
technical skills at your core, the ability to learn and pick up new
skills, whether it be a new piece of software or anything else would
be very, very hard. I don’t buy it for a second that just because
Autodesk release a new version of 3d Studio Max, or Unreal or Crytek
release new versions of their game engines, or even if a company
release a whole new piece of software that I've never seen before,
that the skills I've learnt from the use of the older programs all of
a sudden become redundant and wasted. Mine and my wife’s brand new
Ford Focus, and when I say brand new, I mean brand new! Is so much
more advanced and improved than the 13 year old Fiat Punto we had.
But you know what I did when I got in the new car? Started it up and
drove off in it, no problem at all, didn't have to think about
anything. Okay I had to learn how to use the new controls on the
steering wheel, even get use to the more advanced response from the
accelerator and brakes, the traction control and the ESP (Electronic
Stability Program). Okay, I'm getting geeky about cars again, but
again, my point is that the technical skills I have been taught first
hand in my life are incredibly vital in order to make my new
experiences in life easier to handle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Soft
skills are still a bit of a hard one to explain. I might say that
soft skills benefit your technical skills more than the other way
around. Soft skills are more human, more natural, they help us to
take approaches that perhaps aren't always the most logical, but are
still necessary. Soft skills are perhaps not as easy to find or
access compared to technical skills. If I want to learn new technical
skills, I simply find the ones I'm looking for and devote some of my
time to learning them, that isn't to say that some people can learn
them quicker or easier than others and that then may come down to
that persons level of soft skills. I think then that soft skills are
offered randomly, and perhaps that is why some people are more
attuned to them. Perhaps these people have had more opportunities to
learn soft skills than others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm not
really sure if there will ever be away to teach soft skills, and I
think that a persons ability to learn them depends on many factors
such as age, personality, their beliefs, and even their technical
skills etc. I think education needn't change so drastically, as
although the future is so close and rapidly approaching, it is at the
same time far away. I have always worried that when I'm as old as my
grandparents that I will be as afraid of new technology as they are
now, although, give them their due (maybe with a little thanks to
me), they're not so bad. But they were never brought up surrounded by
new developing technology like I have, so I struggle to see how I
would be, I hope to be amazed by what the future holds, but I'm
confident that thanks to my ever developing technical and soft
skills, I will be able to handle what ever the future holds. </span>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8cYzwCDtZUI/UaNMzHgU2cI/AAAAAAAAAnE/CNw5x2FuJWU/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8cYzwCDtZUI/UaNMzHgU2cI/AAAAAAAAAnE/CNw5x2FuJWU/s640/Untitled-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-88280413143369753712013-05-26T14:15:00.000-07:002013-05-31T17:35:51.998-07:00Creativity, Talent and Skill – If you don’t know, have a go! <div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I could
swear I'd done a blog about creativity before?! I really didn't think
my mind was that frazzled, but, if you're not already aware, that is
what the Game Art and Design course can do to you. Unless! I have
already done a blog on creativity, and in that case then, Mike, you
need to get more 'creative' with your blog tasks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To
create something is to bring something into existence, so, somebody
who is 'creative' basically has the ability to bring things into
existence?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
problem is, most of the time this question gets debated it becomes tedious
and boring, so lets just go straight into a Youtube video shall we.
I know my head lecturer wont mind me posting this, so please watch it
and enjoy it, and learn something. If you enjoy it, AND learn
something, then please just feel free to ignore what else I have to
say.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/iG9CE55wbtY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The talk
by Sir Ken Robinson above is an extremely important and enlightening
one. Because he has the ability to make people laugh, his message is
more received than others and this is the important thing. If you
agree with most, or all of what he says then, like myself, you're
probably from planet Earth and have therefore been educated here.
</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think
the most important thing that Sir Ken mentions in the video is
Education. For me personally, education is one of, if not the
greatest assets to mankind, it is an extremely powerful tool, and
when used correctly it can give very powerful results, but if used
wrong it can cause major issues.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So far,
I have been blessed with a wonderful education all through my life,
not just at school, but from family, friends and even strangers. But
as Sir Ken points out, there seems to be something fundamentally
wrong with some approaches, even to good education. For me
personally, it has taken a self directed journey in order to discover
this, and maybe that’s the only way to, and maybe it sometimes
takes others longer to discover it than other, or maybe sometimes
people never discover and here’s where the problem lies.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Are you
afraid to be wrong? If you are, why? I suppose from a young age you
quickly learn that if you do something wrong it can cause problems,
but why are we not taught that if you do something wrong, you might
learn how to do it right, or learn something new, or create something
new? Getting something right gives you one result, getting something
wrong gives you infinite possibilities!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did you
know, that apparently it took Thomas Edison 1000's of tries before he
invented the light-bulb? Would he of invented it if he was afraid to
get it wrong? And the point that Sir Ken makes in his lectures is,
“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never create anything
original”. Creativity and originality work hand in hand, and if
somebody or something is creative then it means that it is an
original idea that has value. Creativity spawns from unpredictability
and the capacity to innovate. This brings me onto a little argument I
had recently. Somebody had already told me that this person has this opinion, but I
was taken aback a little when he said it to me. He told me that 'art
is easy, anyone can do it'. Naturally, I quickly disagreed, and to
prove my following point I quickly logged into my online portfolio to
show him a specific piece of my work. Last year I spent many hours
doing a pencil drawing of a car, a Bentley Continental GT if you're
at all interested, and its shown below;</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xE4V6MfH4IU/UaJ6b625xoI/AAAAAAAAAm0/D7S0mIjLxL4/s1600/final+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="434" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xE4V6MfH4IU/UaJ6b625xoI/AAAAAAAAAm0/D7S0mIjLxL4/s640/final+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joedempseygameart.daportfolio.com/gallery/622219#3">http://www.joedempseygameart.daportfolio.com/gallery/622219#3</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What I
told him was that before I joined the Game Art and Design course I
could never draw cars like this. I'd tried and failed many, many
times, and he replied, 'but you must of always been able to draw
well'. Well, no. We hear the phrase, 'naturally talented' thrown
around a lot, and to some degree I agree with it and understand it,
the human form is a very complex one, and yes, some people may have
the abilities, naturally, to do certain things better than others,
but my argument was that if that was the case, then it wouldn't last
for long. You can only rely on natural ability for so long before you
hit a brick wall, true ability, talent, skill, comes from dedication
and hard work. Valentino Rossi makes racing a 240bhp motorcycle look very
easy, but he had his arse on a motorbike before I could even walk!
Ronnie O'Sullivan makes getting a top score of 147 when he plays
Snooker look very easy, and his first 147 score was when he was 7! What do
these two extraordinarily talented individuals have in common,
natural ability?Then why is one good at one thing but cant do the
other? Why cant some people draw cars like the one I drew, why
couldn't I always draw cars like that? If art is so easy! Its because
Valentino Rossi, Ronnie O'Sullivan, and myself believe it or not,
have practise, and practised, and practised very hard to become as
skilled as we are in the things that we do. I drew that car wrong
100's of times before I drew that one, but nobody seen me get it
wrong! Ronnie O'Sullivan missed thousands upon thousands of shots
before he became as good as he did and Valentino Rossi crashed at
speeds of up to 200mph before he could race a MotoGP like he does
today, like its part of him!<br /><br />So it all comes back to my most
important point. Creativity, talent and skill all thrive on one
important core entity, and if the core becomes rotten, then
creativity, talent and skill can become broken, misused or
misunderstood. Education. The ability to be open to education is the
most important thing, not for me or you, but for everybody, for life
on this planet, and all to often we can close ourselves off from it
all to easily without ever knowing we have. </span></div>
</div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-56189926260528848442013-05-26T08:20:00.003-07:002013-05-27T03:17:02.103-07:00Generalist or Specialist? <div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jack of
all trades, master of none?<br /><br />Its a question on many of the
students minds right now, especially after this year. After a number
of guest lectures from industry professionals and the group projects,
lots of ideas and advice are being constantly thrown about on the
specific roles available, specifically within the games industry.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now is a
better time than ever to start thinking about life’s next direction
though, believe it or not the future is just around the corner every
day, it keeps coming like a relentless, heartless, impatient bitch.
Regardless of this, a few years ago I found out the hard way, that no
matter how hard you work and plan for the future, sometimes it can
throw something completely different at you and you find yourself all
of a sudden picking your plans up out of the trash. It might not
always deliver negative results though, and as most people will tell
you who have experienced this, often, when one door closes another
opens, and probably the best advice I could give you now is to pick
up as many of the pieces as you can, take them with you through the
new door, and although things might not turn out exactly as you had
hoped, you might be pleasantly surprised. One of my favourite sayings
is, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. I'm no stranger
to making the best of what life throws at you, and at the end of the
day, what other option is there?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7122667665661216595" name="firstHeading"></a>Despite
this positivity I wont lie that I have many worries about what my
future holds, despite feeling confident with my artistic abilities
and the fact that I would be a great asset to any team, I have no
doubts that aiming for, and sticking at a full time job along side my
caring role at home would be a struggle. But I also have no delusions
that I’m not the only person who has to deal with personal
struggles, and the most important thing is never to stop trying to
overcome them. Last year, a guest lecture from Mitch Small of
Codemasters, really gave me a moral boost, because of one thing he
said. Basically, he told us that as much as thinking about our
immediate futures in the games industry, we needed to stop worrying
that if we miss an opportunity now another wont come along
eventually, and he assured us that life will always continue to throw
new opportunities at you, I think the most important thing is that I
need to be patient, what ever happens, happens. <span style="color: black;"><span lang="en">Que
Sera.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="en">At
certain times this year has been hard for me. A few weeks ago a few
members of the Lockwood art studios gave a guest lecture and were
also offering placements and freelance work, and I felt upset as my
fellow students went and collected contact information and discussing
what they were going to apply for as I sat back and thought deeply
about if I could really give it my all, and this led me onto asking
the same questions about my future careers. Right now, I'd have to
say the answer is no, but can anybody? Just because I couldn't give a
job my all, doesn't mean to say I couldn't give it a lot! So again,
I'll just be patient and see what the future brings.<br /><br />Right
now, my immediate plans are to finsih my third year of uni and
hopefully come away with a decent qualification. In a way, there a
little less pressure compared to some of the students who have no
choice but to find a job at the end of this. I would really like to
take a year out at the end of next year and really take some time to
regenerate and relax, I honestly havn't stopped for four years now,
and I really need to give my mind and body time to recover.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="en">In
terms of what I would like out of a career, well, unlike some I'm not
setting myself incredibly high goals. I've heard many people suggest
that becoming a 'T-shaped' person in terms of your abilities is the
best way to go. This basically means that a person should be an
expert in a specific area, but also have a more simpler, broader
range of skills in many others so that any new tasks a company may
need completing could easily be picked up by that person. In a way
the Game Art and Design course gives us the best opportunity to do
this, to me, the most important thing I've learnt from the course is
that with the quick turn around of new technology and new software,
the ability to pick things up quickly and use them well is crucial.
<br /><br />What I've really wanted to do since meeting Mitch Small is
work for Codemasters in their race game devision. As mentioned, I'm
confident in my artistic skills but I have no real wishes to become a
concept artist, funnily enough, what I'd really like to do, despite
what can be mind numbingly repetetive at times, is a general 3D
artist, and with my huge passion for motorsport in general I think
doing something game related and motorsport related I could really
make a massive contribution as I am so passionate about both. Knowing
that this is something I'd like to do also gives me an advantage, as
I can now research and work more specifically towards this role
without forgetting about learning new things, and maybe become a
'T-Shaped' person? </span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="en"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLcPTc6ACWM/UaIoHGyGQLI/AAAAAAAAAmc/ClxW1fLl6CA/s1600/penny-and-sheldon-10828-1920x1080+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLcPTc6ACWM/UaIoHGyGQLI/AAAAAAAAAmc/ClxW1fLl6CA/s640/penny-and-sheldon-10828-1920x1080+copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3MZMQgxE55U/UaIoNlg2lZI/AAAAAAAAAmk/99jtQ5eQHBs/s1600/lemonade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3MZMQgxE55U/UaIoNlg2lZI/AAAAAAAAAmk/99jtQ5eQHBs/s640/lemonade.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-13327976957237241372013-05-25T15:03:00.001-07:002013-05-25T15:03:14.909-07:00Interaction Design<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I would
like to think that I've been fortunate enough to have been born at a
time when video games and all other technology have become major
parts of individuals lives. Some people may not agree, but as well as
providing people with enjoyment and entertainment there is no doubt
in my mind that technology provides so much more. It can save lives
and make life so much easier for anybody and everybody.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today,
one of the first things to consider with the development of new
technology, (although sometimes you wouldn't think so, *cough,
Windows 8 *cough), is how a person will interact with it. Companies
now spend millions in development of interaction with their
technology whether it be software based in user interfaces and AI or
hardware base in the peripherals we use such as controllers, cameras
a keyboard or the remote control for your television.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In
recent years video games in particular have had huge developments in
interactive design, particularly home video game consoles. I’m a
Playstation gamer and have owned my PS3 from day numero uno and it
has delivered me many new interactive experiences, some of which were
complete surprises. The first 'device' in order to interact with the
Playstation as many of you I’m sure will be aware is the controller
or 'game-pad'. The game-pad is what the user will hold in their hands
in order to control a device. Over the last 20 years or more, Sony
have spent millions, if not billions in the design of their
controller, the most recent being the 'Dualshock 3', as do many other
companies. Companies will strive to deliver the most 'ergonomically'
designed controller possible to make it as comfortable to hold for
long durations, yet it is impossible to please everyone and designs
change drastically from device to device. But as mentioned, since
owning the Playstation3 I've also been treated to a few surprises in
terms of interaction with the video games I've played. With the PS3
also came the introduction of the new Playstation Eye camera which
tracks players movement with no need for a controller at all. A game
called Operation Creature Feature is a particularly memorable game.
The game presents you with one whole level on the screen where a
number of strange looking creatures reside in one corner and their
final destination awaits them on the other, very similar to Lemmings,
but the levels are much more artistically advanced to say the least.
By only using your hand, which the Playstation Eye tracks, you have
to pick the creatures up and guide them through the obstacles each
level presents without dropping them and thereby killing them. <br /><br />Just
after the PS3 Playstation Eye had been released, I also bought a game
called The Eye Of Judgement. I'm a geek so bear with me here. The
game is actually a card based game similar to Pokemon or Magic the
Gathering, but with an extremely impressive twist. The game is
packaged with a game mat, a square divided 3x3 into nine equally
sized boxes and a small stand for the camera so that it looks
directly onto the play mat. When a card is placed onto the mat, the
camera reads them, and all of a sudden a creature or monster jumps
out of the card on the screen as if actually in the room with you!
Once two cards are placed onto the mat the game will cut to a scene
where the two creatures will fight each other! This will only happen
if the cards are facing each other though, as the camera will even
read which way the card is facing and the creatures will also face in
that direction, so another element of strategy is added to the
game-play. What is perhaps even more impressive is that if you hold a
card in your hand underneath the camera the creature will still jump
out of the card on screen, and you can then turn your hand to turn
the creature around and view it in a full three-dimensional space.
<br /><br />More recently the Playstation Move was introduced as another
peripheral device for interacting with the games console.
Unfortunately it has received very mixed and at times negative
reviews. It is a very similar device to the controllers for the
Nintendo Wii, but is claimed to be much more accurate. You hold the
Move controllers in one hand, similar to a stick, and can play
similar games to the Wii such as sports games like tennis, but the
controller has another ace up its sleeve, or on the end of it if
we're going to be literal. The controller has a small ball on the end
of it which glows, different colours for different players, which,
when used in conjunction with the Playstation Eye camera, is used for
extremely accurate motion tracking. Games such as EyePet, fully
utilise both the Playstation Eye and Playstation Move controller. The
game gets the player to, ideally, sit on the floor in front of the
television with the camera set to face the player and an area of the
floor. When the player taps the floor, a small cute, monkey/ dog
hybrid creature jumps out of the floor and the player can interact
with the creature in many different ways. The game, probably since a
Tamagotchi, is the first true virtual pet experience and the player
must wait for their creature to hatch from an egg and then continue
to care for it, by feeding it (with Playstation buttons), playing
with it, (draw a picture on a piece of paper and hold it up to the
screen and the pet will copy your picture and then turn it into a
real object on screen!), as well as wash it and dry it. The real
interaction is when the player does come to do any of the above
things though, when drying the creature for example, using a
Playstation Move controller, the camera will replace the controller
in your hands (on screen), with a hair dryer! The technology is quite
amazing, by rotating the controller and turning it, there is no way
of telling on the screen that you're holding anything other than a
hair-dryer and at first it is utterly mind blowing!<br /><br />My most
recent experience with new interactive technology, which I was saving
for a separate blog but is probably better placed here, is 3D. Again,
it has received mixed reviews, and again, many negative, but most
people have only experienced 3D films, and most people have only
experienced them at the cinema. Me and my wife recently bought
ourselves a new Samsung 3D smart TV and watching a 3D blu-ray on the
Playstation, with the active shutter 3D glasses that the television
uses, the films are truly awe inspiring. Avatar, The Amazing Spider
Man, The Rise of the Guardians, Brave and more are just beautifully
presented in 3D. Even I was extremely cautious about 3D initially,
and I'm usually the first to get suckered in to a new technology, but
five minutes of watching a 3D movie on a true active shutter
television, on a true 3D blu-ray disc and I assure you, you will
converted.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because
the Playstation 3 uses blu-ray discs though, it is the first ever
games console to fully present 3D specific games, which have been
developed specifically to fully utilise the 3D technology. Gran
Turismo 5 in 1080p, 60fps and 3D! Now that is a recipe to truly blow
anybody away, the experience is just unbelievable and the depth it
adds to the viewing experience is just indescribable, you truly have
to see it to believe it! But the most recent game I had the pleasure
of playing right through in 3D, was Uncharted 3 Drake's Deception.
At a point where I didn't think games could get any more immersive,
technology once again swoops in and proves me wrong. The 3D
environments are so detailed and impressive, and enemies laser sights
come right of the TV and I found myself ducking out the way! It has
been one of, if not the most impressive, interactive gaming
experiences I've ever had, and I honestly cant put into words how it
looks and how it feels when playing, so I implore you to pick up a
PS3 and a 3D-TV, or find a friend who has one and try it out, it is
an amazing interactive experience!<br /><br />What will technology bring
us next? I cant wait! </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nkTv-JGr6as/UaE0Qh4SQgI/AAAAAAAAAmA/GnTL4nrBykA/s1600/operation-creature-feature-20071121011032612-2209109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nkTv-JGr6as/UaE0Qh4SQgI/AAAAAAAAAmA/GnTL4nrBykA/s640/operation-creature-feature-20071121011032612-2209109.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Operation Creature Feature - PS3<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-14eywO1YUN4/UaE0PQqzoWI/AAAAAAAAAls/YNY6FZZZYkc/s1600/eye+of+judgment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-14eywO1YUN4/UaE0PQqzoWI/AAAAAAAAAls/YNY6FZZZYkc/s640/eye+of+judgment.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Eye of Judgement -PS3</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Wztx2WtNYE/UaE0Q_iKJJI/AAAAAAAAAmE/LyTJ7swriVU/s1600/the-eye-of-judgment-20070516083536678.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Wztx2WtNYE/UaE0Q_iKJJI/AAAAAAAAAmE/LyTJ7swriVU/s640/the-eye-of-judgment-20070516083536678.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Eye of Judgement -PS3</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qekT2zQ_zGY/UaE0PNcS6KI/AAAAAAAAAlo/6D_jJ_X1lKw/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="369" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qekT2zQ_zGY/UaE0PNcS6KI/AAAAAAAAAlo/6D_jJ_X1lKw/s640/images.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Eye Pet -PS3</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xNtquHiYrtU/UaE0PFdhHRI/AAAAAAAAAl0/YPS4Rxs_DmE/s1600/images+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="369" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xNtquHiYrtU/UaE0PFdhHRI/AAAAAAAAAl0/YPS4Rxs_DmE/s640/images+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Eye Pet -PS3</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2mnBsuSWwUU/UaE0QkgQ-GI/AAAAAAAAAmI/IKGAnrIh17w/s1600/uncharted-3-wallpaper-3D-646x433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2mnBsuSWwUU/UaE0QkgQ-GI/AAAAAAAAAmI/IKGAnrIh17w/s640/uncharted-3-wallpaper-3D-646x433.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Uncharted 3 Drake's Fortune, 3D - PS3</div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-3859741174924961922013-05-25T09:14:00.000-07:002013-05-25T10:15:11.618-07:00Second Year Personal Review<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For
me, my second year could only be described as a roller-coaster ride
from start to finish. I am writing this blog completely openly so
that anyone who wishes to read it may do so. I hope this final second
year blog will enable you to gain a little insight into my successes
this year and my personal struggles I have endured in order to reach
my goals.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My
story of recent years is that in January 2010 my girlfriend suffered
a blood clot on her brain and at that time myself, family and friends
were told to fear for the worse. Both I and my girlfriend, Sophia, at
that time were first year students on the DMU Game Art and Design
course until, after only four months in, it all came to an abrupt
halt. The force of what happened on January 11<sup>th</sup> 2010 to
Sophia impacted so many people and it will probably never leave me
completely. But, as time ticked away, an eternity for me, Sophia
began to show signs of improvement and her sheer determination
brought her to a point where she is now able to live a fairly normal
life.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In
September 2011 Sophia had reached a mile stone in her long hard road
to recovery and I had built enough courage, as well as enough
encouragement from certain individuals to make the impossible
decision to rejoin the Game Art course without her. I have worked and
studied hard all of my life and so has Sophia, and we deserve the
chance to work for a degree, even if it means we will only be
rewarded with one degree between us.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My
first year back on the course was more difficult emotionally than
anything else, but I was greeted by many new faces with understanding
and support which lifted me up and carried me through. This year
started so positively, Sophia had started a college course for people
who had suffered brain injuries and it gave me strength to know that
she was still able to enjoy an education in the arts. The work for
myself at uni was intense and plentiful and with so many things to
keep on top of at home away from my studies, paperwork, various
appointments for Sophia, paperwork, contact with social care,
doctors, deputies, carers and more, and more paperwork etc.
everything together began to get on top of me and my anxieties grew
as I became more and more aware that having so many balls up in the
air, it was inevitable that I was eventually going to drop one.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
do not enjoy living in Leicester full stop. For the most part, people
are rude, ignorant and have no compassion for their fellow human
beings, in 2011 I was mugged at a park at the end of my street, and
when Sophia became ill I was put through three years of real hell and
suffering and my life was ripped apart, over before it had barely
began. But as my life began to fall back into place, my worries,
anxieties and the stress brought on by everything didn't seem to be
dissipating.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For
reasons I am unable to explain this year I have worried and become
stressed more than ever before. At times I let things get to me too
easily, even trivial, unimportant things, but I am passionate about
certain things and this year the prospect of staying here in
Leicester a minute longer has just gotten too much and I have come so
close to packing up, dropping my studies and leaving and never
looking back, the pressure and the stress has made me ill and it
eventually came to a point where it was obvious to me that none of
this, a degree, my friends in Leicester, and the small life we have
built for ourselves here was worth it. It was time to go.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Up
to this point I had still worked as hard as I always do on my
university work and was more than happy with the quality of the work
I had been producing, but nothing was going to stop me from producing
this work anywhere and at any time. What happened next was what every
person deserves when they reach a breaking point and what I hope
everyone is offered. The support from my friends, my family, my
acquaintances, my tutors and my friends and fellow students at
university burst into life and overwhelmed me. The decision was still
my own, but by the strength of others it was being forced back,
fought back in the opposite direction. The right direction?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
don’t believe in fate or destiny, or that everything that happens,
happens for a reason. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc. I am a scientist at
heart and a geek in the flesh, and what I KNOW is that at present,
the only real logical explanation that anything happens when it
happens, IS BECAUSE IT JUST HAPPENED. You might say that sheer luck
or the infinite possibilities of the way the universe works happened
to give me my final push, others are entitled to say that I was meant
to stumble across what I did. All I know is that at the final fork in
the road I was presented with a random quote from Thomas Alva Edison;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“MANY
OF LIFE'S FAILURES ARE PEOPLE WHO DID NOT REALISE HOW CLOSE THEY WERE
TO SUCCESS WHEN THEY GAVE UP”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With
the second year group project looming my decision to stick at it and
persevere would turn out to be the right one, and a boost in energy,
positivity and willingness was exactly what I needed in order to
manage the incoming influx of work for the project. Fortunately
though, in February, I was pleasantly surprised to be informed that I
was being placed into a group with whom I already knew were five
other incredibly hard working and talented students who, over the
next fourteen weeks would only reinforce my already high opinion of
them. Not to say that I'm not also confident that during the project
I worked impeccably hard to make an outstanding contribution to the
groups work, the work was difficult enough, but with the added
pressure of my caring role at home it has taken every last ounce of
my energy to produce the amount of work at the standard that I have.
But the support and understanding given to me from my five team mates
during the project, Chelsea Lindsay, Luc Fontenoy, Dominic Bell,
Daniel Peacock and Dan Hargreaves, made everything so much easier and
so worthwhile. They are truly
wonderful individuals and extremely talented artists. I wish them all
of the luck in the world in their future endeavours and here is to
hoping that we may have the opportunity to work together again in the
future. Again I would like to say that I have been extremely lucky to
have been placed in this group with five other hard working and
talented artists.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before
I finish my post, I would just like to wish the best of luck to two
of my fellow students and close friends who have been given the
opportunity to work with BMW in Munich, Germany for a whole year
starting in September. I am insanely jealous of you both but I'm
certain that you will both be fantastic role models for the Game Art
and Design course and go on to have very successful careers within
the video game, art, visual effects industries or wherever else life
leads you.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This
year has been one of, if not the hardest years of education I have
ever endured, for all of the reasons above and many, many more. I
would like to end my post by taking
the opportunity to thank my beautiful wife Sophia, and my wonderful
family for the support and understanding they have offered me during
the whole year. I have had to lock myself away from the world for
many, many hours over the last eight months in order to fully devote
myself to the work and Sophia, family and friends have been wonderful
in offering constant support and patience at times when I have become
upset and stressed with the amount of work I have had to do. So I
thank you all, and give my word that what ever next year brings,
whatever next year throws at me, I will give as much effort and
devotion to my work as I have this year and finally come home with
that scroll of paper that me and Sophia more than deserve.</span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-58721196213764391512013-05-09T13:09:00.002-07:002013-05-09T13:11:27.730-07:00The Group Project, Finished, Part One<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After fourteen weeks of impeccably hard
work, yesterday myself and the rest of my group, (Chelsea Lindsay,
Daniel Peacock, Dominic Bell, Luc Fontenoy and Daniel Hargreaves,
Pudding Lane Productions) gave our final presentation to our tutors
and the rest of our year group as well as a number of final year
students. We all felt the pressure, we all felt the nerves, but we
all felt confident, as we have throughout the project, confidence in
how much effort we had put in, confidence in the quality of our work
and confidence in the outcome of our project.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />So I hold my
hands up and take full responsibility for the fact I haven’t
updated my blog for a while in regards to the work I have been doing
for the group project, and I apologize for that. But, I can assure
you full well that the work has been done, in fact, apart from a
little visual design work, the group project work is the only work I
have been doing since my last update 11 weeks ago. I didn't even take
any time off over the three week Easter break last month like some of
the other members!<br /><br />Its all been worth it though, our project
has just gone from strength to strength and all thanks to the hard
work every member of the group has put in as well as the fact that
the team has gotten on so well from day one. We have helped each
other, supported each other and I'm so happy that I was put in a
group with such talented artists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So lets get on to the work I have
contributed to the project since my last update! I wont go into to
much detail on my processes of development as it would no doubt make
this blog very, very long but I will try my best to give a little
description of what the work was for. More information on all of the
teams work can be found at our group blog;</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/">http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/</a>
<br />I will also go into much further detail on all of my processes in
my personal design document.</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Week Three - In week three myself and
two other members of the group took a trip to Rutland and Oakham to
begin gathering some first hand reference for our modular buildings,
more information can be found on that trip at our group blog
here;</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/visit-to-rutland-and-oakham.html">http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/visit-to-rutland-and-oakham.html</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With
a little time left at the end of the week I began to experiment with
the building process of modular buildings;</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4qbxvcz22r4/UYv8SE5naJI/AAAAAAAAAh0/qcHwF1W9rto/s1600/DSC07937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4qbxvcz22r4/UYv8SE5naJI/AAAAAAAAAh0/qcHwF1W9rto/s320/DSC07937.JPG" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team photo of the Rutland trip</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RnDKF9DPq9A/UYv8-8S5R9I/AAAAAAAAAh8/D8VMI6TTATw/s1600/modular+buildings+week+two.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RnDKF9DPq9A/UYv8-8S5R9I/AAAAAAAAAh8/D8VMI6TTATw/s640/modular+buildings+week+two.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first try at modular buildings</td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Week Four - In week four the team began
to split the work up between the members. The ideas were flowing and
the diversity of work needing to be carried out was growing. After
the Rutland trip I'd managed to get plenty of reference images of
churches and church ground objects, and from my initial research and
concepts I had included some churches in those too with gravestones
and a church wall. The rest of the team liked those concepts and the
idea of including church grounds in our level so this week I was
taken away from my modular buildings and asked to build a decent
selection of low poly gravestones. Seen as other members of the group
were developing their modulars, the team thought it would be a good
idea for me to do the gravestones as well as a modular church wall so
that we could start to demonstrate how the level would also be
populated with smaller
assets.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-5-modelling-under-way.html">http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-5-modelling-under-way.html</a></span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hmEWzcHE_2U/UYv9xOevadI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/eVx5p_P_ttw/s1600/gravestones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hmEWzcHE_2U/UYv9xOevadI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/eVx5p_P_ttw/s320/gravestones.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BlSiAsFssbw/UYv9wKlXywI/AAAAAAAAAiI/qrRinaeSAs4/s1600/churchwall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BlSiAsFssbw/UYv9wKlXywI/AAAAAAAAAiI/qrRinaeSAs4/s320/churchwall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Week Five - At the end of week four I
spent some time completing the minibus test at the university and was
able to arrange a trip to York, The Shambles, for all of the teams
taking part in the 'Off The Map' project using the university
minibus. It was a great opportunity for the team to collect more
first hand reference, and because I was driving the minibus we were
able to spend as long as we liked in York and all of the team members
were able to attend. The trip was fantastic and gave the whole team a
real sense of just how tightly packed the 17</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Century
London Streets would have been. More information on the York trip can
be read at our team blog here;</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/going-up-north.html"><span style="font-size: large;">http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/going-up-north.html</span></a>
</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q9rgGqBJOL0/UYv_Jb_TynI/AAAAAAAAAik/EndrqcJzJSw/s1600/DSC08586.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q9rgGqBJOL0/UYv_Jb_TynI/AAAAAAAAAik/EndrqcJzJSw/s320/DSC08586.JPG" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Shambles in York</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After the trip the team went into week
five in full swing, full of inspiration and ideas from the York trip.
For the week I was tasked with producing a selection of street
specific concepts for Pudding Lane. The team were worried that,
although the level was beginning to grow rapidly, a lot of the
streets were beginning to look very similar. Some of the team members
were doing more detailed concepts of their designated streets,
looking at various props that might populate certain streets. I on
the other hand decided to look into the teams idea of colour grading
individual streets to bring variety to the level. I have to admit,
I’m not the greatest fan of digi painting as it is, wont go into
that now, so I decided to produce a variety of water colours as I'm
confident with the medium and I think the medium lends itself well to
portraying the atmosphere the team hoped to convey in the level.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Week Five team blog;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-five-back-to-map_12.html">http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-five-back-to-map_12.html</a>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The watercolours I produced are shown
below;</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Week Six - Before the team had their
first meeting of the week I first spent a few hours in and around
Leicester city centre gathering more reference for the team. Some
reference particularly for use for modelling as some for textures in
the coming weeks. I also wrote an independent blog on the teams
blogger on my adventures around Leicester which can be read here;</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/more-first-hand-reference-joe-dempsey.html">http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/more-first-hand-reference-joe-dempsey.html</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zYaADvSasVg/UYwAhTj_a5I/AAAAAAAAAjY/qZwVd_y4dHw/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zYaADvSasVg/UYwAhTj_a5I/AAAAAAAAAjY/qZwVd_y4dHw/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n7Qce6xKJWI/UYwAjwZzxLI/AAAAAAAAAjg/oXlJb7h3Cbc/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n7Qce6xKJWI/UYwAjwZzxLI/AAAAAAAAAjg/oXlJb7h3Cbc/s320/3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After collecting all of the reference
in Leicester, my job for week six was to produce a selection of
textures for the project. The team hoped to get the full selection of
'modular' type textures done for all of the buildings this week so we
planned all of the textures we thought we needed, discussed the
amount of material id's our modular buildings should use, and then
the textures were divided between myself and two other members of the
team. The team was also hoping to bake the textures from high poly
models in order to ensure the textures were of as high a quality as
possible. I was a little unsure about this as I haven’t one much
modelling in ZBrush and therefore wasn't very confident with it but
one of the major benefits of this project has been the fact that
certain team members are strong in certain areas of their work and,
especially because our team got on so well, we were all able to share
our knowledge in these areas in order to help others. Dan Hargreaves
is much more familiar with ZBrush and high-to-low poly baking in
general and was able to help me a great deal with the whole process,
providing me with plenty of advice as well as links to good tutorials
on the process. In the end, I decided the best way I could go around
doing my textures was to do the main details for the stone work and
bricks by first baking the larger stone shapes and the using the
program nDo2 to create the smaller details. For my wood and plaster
textures I purely used ZBrush to sculpt these. Another thing I found
hard was creating a tileable texture within ZBrush, but again Dan was
able to help me with that process and any other seams for these I was
able to fix in Photoshop. I was extremely happy with the outcome of
the textures I produced after not being so confident with the process
at the beginning of the week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Team's week six blog;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-6-textures-and-start-of-level.html">http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-6-textures-and-start-of-level.html</a></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Week Seven - Week seven got off to a
slow start as it was also the start of the three week Easter break,
but prior to the holiday the whole team had a lengthy meeting to
discuss the jobs we would all like each other to do over the break,
and anything else that might of needed to be done we could all chat
on Facebook. I had decided to stay in Leicester anyway over the break
instead of travelling home to the parents as I was planning to
basically not take a break and work throughout the holiday. So, for
week seven, to start the Easter break, I was tasked with completing
my set of modular buildings, I hadn't finished these with doing the
modular church assets in the third week of the project so it was time
for me to finish mine. I set myself the task of completing ten
modular buildings for the week, concentration of keeping the main
structures the same, two/ three stories, and creating as much variety
as possible in building shape, wooden beam distribution, door
position and shape, window positions, size and shape, chimney
position, size and shape not forgetting that the textures completed
last week would also add even more variety to my buildings.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Below are my modular buildings as well
as the team blog for week seven;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-7.html">http://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/week-7.html</a></span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-81219866739324480852013-05-09T06:08:00.003-07:002013-05-09T06:08:28.702-07:00Sound In Video Games<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I cant think of any way a person could
go through life without being affected or influenced by music, music
can define lifestyle, culture and personality no matter how small or
large a part it plays and there is no doubt that music has played a
large part in history. Music has an undeniable power to evoke
emotions and it affects how we perceive things. Just like art, music
can be powerful, controversial and influential.<br /><br />All that being
said, I cant really stress enough how important music is in every
walk of life. Within the world of media, music has always been a big
part of the film and television industries with films like Star Wars,
Indiana Jones, and even older films like The Good, The Bad and The
Ugly having their own defining original scores, its only really in
recent generations that we have seen the sounds of video games
matching the audio quality of such films with their symphonic
orchestral scores.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gone are the days of the beep, bop,
boop of Pac-Man and Pong, as technology develops, faster processors,
larger storage devices, so too has the audio quality of games. When
the PS3 was released I had worked hard at my part time job to save up
and buy myself a HD-TV and I used to go mad at my friends who would
play theirs on old CRT televisions. As the technology has progressed
within the consoles themselves so to has the technology within the
peripheral devices needed to play the games and get the 'full'
experience. You see, I'd also bought myself a cheap-ish surround
sound set, and what a difference it made! So much so, I've not used
the standard sound from my TV set for at least seven years! Once you
get used to it and then switch back to the standard television
speakers the difference is just unbelievable! And for me, that is
what the sound, the music does, it makes the difference, it makes the
experience what it should be, it evokes the emotions, the feelings,
it delivers the final impact a game deserves. <br /><br />Today, visuals
are only half of the story, as sound in video games becomes more and
more crucial, good sound design grounds a player in the environment,
transports the player to the fabricated game world and importantly,
lets the player know what’s going on around them. As you may be
aware from previous blog posts, I'm very into my motor sport and a
sucker for racing games, I love playing Gran Turismo with the
surround sound. The sub-woofer can deliver the deep down growl of a
v6 engine and the surrounding speakers makes it feel as though the
other cars are really around me, close behind me or close on the
inside going into a corner. Every other genre of game is only
enriched by its sound though, the clinking and clanking of a
Necramorph waiting around the corner in Dead Space builds the
suspense and the tension, the ear piecing shrieks of gun fire
surrounding you in a war game. And as the technology becomes more
readily available and affordable, just as high definition television
sets have over recent years, the demand in the market begins to rise
and pushes things forwards. Although, as with HD when it was first
released, it is hard to introduce people and get them on board,
especially with sound. Seeing a leap in visual quality, in graphics,
is easier, its much harder to convey the experience of a high-end
surround sound set up, but as developers continue to strive for new
and innovative ways of introducing the consumer to great sound
quality, the sophistication of sound design should continue to grow
with the demand.<br /><br />The wonderful thing about the type of media a
video game is, is that each component is there to compliment the
other and the final product could simply not work without all of the
cogs running smoothly in unison. So for me, sound in a video game is
just as important as the visuals or anything else, whether it be an
epic score, a catchy theme tune or the endless sound effects needing
to be implemented in today’s games, the effect of being immersed
within the games environment is probably the most important thing I
desire from a game, and this could not be done without sound.</span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-32302785645902361842013-03-11T13:41:00.000-07:002013-03-11T13:44:10.401-07:00The Group Project; Week Two<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pSacd_rKOzs/UT45IOwySJI/AAAAAAAAAVM/PMdQaRgd0pI/s1600/Groupphoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="427" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pSacd_rKOzs/UT45IOwySJI/AAAAAAAAAVM/PMdQaRgd0pI/s640/Groupphoto.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pudding Lane Productions Group Photo on the British Library visit</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In week two the groups, including ours,
had the opportunity to visit the British Library for the day. During
the visit we were given a fantastic tour of the building learning
about the history of the building and how it operates today in a
modern society. One of the things I was most fascinated by was the
Kings Library tower at the heart of the library. Immediately upon
entering the building the tall glass tower which houses books
collected by King George III made a huge impression on me and during
the tour I had plenty of questions to ask and was fascinated by the
pure volume of books kept within the tower, the age of the material
and the potentially infinite value of what I found in front of
me.<br /><br />Our group were then given the pleasure to be led to the
'Map Room' within the library to look at originals of the digital
copies of various historical maps courtesy of Stella Wisdom (British
Library) and Tom Harper (Curator of Antiquarian Mapping). It was a
fantastic opportunity to be able to see a selection of maps and other
reference material first hand and right up close. The whole group
spent a good length of time pouring over the maps and it was a great
opportunity to discuss more ideas of what we would all like to
achieve from the project. The group/ team were coming up with lots of
new inspiring ideas and it was awesome to be able to demonstrate
these ideas using the actual maps in front of us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As we discussed I noticed that one of
the larger maps in the room was actually of a much later date than we
were hoping to recreate in the project but the smaller map at the
corner of the table which was London after the Great Fire by John
Leake, 1667 which seemed like the closest we were going to to get to
the date of the time we were hoping to construct which we agreed was
going to be 'the latest point in time <b>before </b>the
great fire'. This was decided as we all wanted to accurately recreate
the London streets of the time with no effect of damage or
destruction from the fire. It was agreed that this is the map we
would work from throughout the project so that we could ensure that
there would be a consistency throughout from the whole group.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One
of the things I was mostly interested in when surveying the maps was
the actual scale of things, something I would take upon myself to
look into further in the next week in order to begin to give the
group a real idea of things such as the width's of the individual
streets to further enhance the accuracy of the project. To quote from
the group blog, during our discussions at the British Library, we had
gathered some general ideas about what we wanted to create for the
project; a gloomy, depressed City of London at the latest point
before the Great Fire started, ridden with plague and filth in a
sheet of mist and smog. The plan for the following week then was to
begin elaborate on our initial ideas and concepts with more in depth
concepting and mood boards so that we could begin to establish more
definite and detailed plans for a consistent art style. I myself was
given the daunting task of concepting for our main focal area,
Pudding Lane for week three!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Below are a selection of Photographs I took during the visit to the British Library.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VihwMPWBHgc/UT46FE7zonI/AAAAAAAAAVU/ntIFhMRSoxU/s1600/DSC07636.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VihwMPWBHgc/UT46FE7zonI/AAAAAAAAAVU/ntIFhMRSoxU/s400/DSC07636.JPG" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Kings Library Tower</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Kings Library Tower</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These images also show some of the photographs I was able to take of the maps showing great detail.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tjAlG1VGcwE/UT46WUOS7yI/AAAAAAAAAVk/Qr2vYOjWBYE/s1600/DSC07644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tjAlG1VGcwE/UT46WUOS7yI/AAAAAAAAAVk/Qr2vYOjWBYE/s400/DSC07644.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLQ_hTAyM_c/UT46iFXGkCI/AAAAAAAAAVs/Ex2kSgtT9YY/s1600/DSC07655.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLQ_hTAyM_c/UT46iFXGkCI/AAAAAAAAAVs/Ex2kSgtT9YY/s400/DSC07655.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">London after the Great Fire by John Leake 1667, copperplate engraving (the map we wil be using throughout our project)</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Key on the map of London after the Great Fire by John Leake 1667</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A little more information on the map we decided to use as the main reference point during the construction of our 17th Century London Streets (as shown in the photographs above), taken from the Crytek Off the Map student handbook;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">London after the Great Fire by John
Leake, 1667, Cpperplate engraving. A map of London drawn after the
Great Fire of London (1666) had destroyed most of the land within the
city walls. The area which has been destroyed is shown as shaded,
with the buildings still standing in profile around the edge. A large
percentage of the buildings of London were made of wood, and
therefore would not have stood a chance. This map shows the plan for
the rebuilding of London, superimposed on top of the shaded area. It
also has dotted lines showing the boundaries of the various
jurisdictions because, with everything razed to the ground, who could
have known where one boundary stopped and another started? St Paul's
Cathedral, in the middle, would not be rebuilt for another 50 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Below is a clearer image taken from the internet of the whole map;</span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-49172960708836716942013-03-11T11:20:00.001-07:002013-03-11T11:48:57.968-07:00The Group Project; Week One<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Week one is always a challenge, the
group had a few weeks to begin working before having to give a
presentation on our initial ideas in front of the other students and
the tutors and for myself week one included gathering as much
reference, mainly from the internet and books, and then to get pencil
to paper as quickly as possible.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The search for reference material was
as much looking into historical documentation from the age as well as
visual reference. As I found it is extremely difficult to find any
accurate visual reference from the 17<sup>th</sup> century other than
in paintings and old maps. I had to consider the fact that the
project is titled 'Off the Map' so I tried to gather as much
reference material from the maps I could find as possible. Although
the maps gave me great ideas on the actual layouts of the streets, it
was hard to gather an idea on what the streets of 17<sup>th</sup>
Century London would actually look like from the ground. Some of the
maps I came across did have hand drawn or engraved cityscapes of
London on them such as James de la Feuille's map of London
c. 16<span style="color: black;">90 and the engraved panorama of London by Visccher 1616.</span><span style="color: black;">
</span><span style="color: black;">I
also gathered as much imagery I could of old 'tudor' style buildings
to help aid with the concepting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In
our first weeks meeting we were all full of ideas from the reference
collected by each of us. It was great to be able to share each others
ideas and talk about the individual pieces of information we had
gathered and we began to accumulate all of this giving us a glimpse
of the direction in which we thought we might want to take this
project. We then discussed where we would take our initial ideas and
continue to develop them further into the next week.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Below is one of the first maps I added to my reference, </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">James de la Feuille's map of London</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> c. 16</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">90.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Below is a selection of reference images collected in week one.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-59TCaUUguLA/UT4e0h3-AZI/AAAAAAAAAUw/dtTPawA1tD4/s1600/london-16th-century-granger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-59TCaUUguLA/UT4e0h3-AZI/AAAAAAAAAUw/dtTPawA1tD4/s400/london-16th-century-granger.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7fweWlRZIY4/UT4e09gvjOI/AAAAAAAAAUo/xdVZJMIgGeA/s1600/london-southwark-16th-century-antique-print-1845-71341-p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7fweWlRZIY4/UT4e09gvjOI/AAAAAAAAAUo/xdVZJMIgGeA/s400/london-southwark-16th-century-antique-print-1845-71341-p.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--BYDGCISTwY/UT4e1CX1f-I/AAAAAAAAAUg/LizncarAaS0/s1600/pudding_lane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--BYDGCISTwY/UT4e1CX1f-I/AAAAAAAAAUg/LizncarAaS0/s400/pudding_lane.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Below is some of my initial sketches developed from week one's reference, some I kept quite serious but I also experimented with the 'wonkiness' of the buildings.</span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-41071971579662766192013-03-11T09:10:00.000-07:002013-03-11T09:10:54.994-07:00The Group Project<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've been quite busy for a few weeks
now since starting the group project and I've neglected posting the
progress and the work I've been doing for the project. That being
said, I thought I better get a post up and show some of what I and
the rest of the group have been up to before we've accumulated too
much work to fit on one post!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />So, before we jump in, I should
say that there was slight confusion before starting the group project
as to what we were actually going to be doing! For many years, the
second year group projects on the Game Art Design course has always
been to recreate one of the university buildings in the survival
horror theme. There had been lots of rumours leading up to this years
project that this was all going to change, there was excitement and
plenty of apprehension to say the least. A few weeks before the
project was due to start the rumours were put to rest and the new
project was revealed, we were going to be given the opportunity to
take part in a project/ competition operated by Crytek in
collaboration with the British Library and
GameCity.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.crytek.com/blog/crytek-challenges-students-to-go-off-the-map-with-cryengine--3">http://www.crytek.com/blog/crytek-challenges-students-to-go-off-the-map-with-cryengine--3</a><br /><br />The
project challenges students to draw inspiration from maps provided by
the British Library and then to turn the inspiration into interactive
environments using Crytek's free CryENGINE 3 SDK game engine.
Specifically we were told that we would be focusing on 17<sup>th</sup>
century maps of London provided by the British Library and
re-creating a scene from the city of London in that era. Oddly, and
truthfully there were mixed reactions, myself included. I'm not
entirely sure why, but from my own perspective I can say that the
main reason is that I was fairly certain we would be doing the
survival horror project so I had already started to process a few
ideas as horror is one of, if not my favourite genre in games, films
and books, so I was slightly disappointed that I wouldn't get the
opportunity to take things further. This also took everyone a little
by surprise, and I know initially I was struggling to try and
visualise things and I was a little worried about having to learn a
new engine after a short time with the Unreal Engine. Apart from
those things though, and as well as not being alone with my thoughts,
the project outlined by Crytek seemed very interesting and something
fresh for the second year.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A week or so before the project was due
to begin the groups were decided by our Game production tutor Heather
and outlined on Blackboard. I was pleased to find myself in a group
with five other hard-working, talented and like-minded students so
the project was immediately off to a good start! Unfortunately things
took a bit of a turn when arriving for lectures the morning group
projects were due to start. A few students apparently had some issues
with the groups they had been put in and out tutor was what you might
say, pissed off. Because of this all of us second years were told to
decide our own groups as well as being told that we could also chose
between the Crytek project and the Survival Horror project from past
years, all sorts of balls up in the air! Now, it needs to be said we
were all aware, or at least should of been that when were put into
groups by the tutor we weren’t going to be with our closest friends
and that, that would be hugely beneficial for our future careers
within the industry. So when we were told too pick our own groups,
despite other students quickly jumping at the chance to change
groups, it was immediately obvious that myself and the other students
from the initial outlined groups wanted to stick with our tutors
decision to place us in that group.<br /><br />Once we had decided on the
team we were going to be in for the next 15 weeks the next decision
was which project we were going to do. The team was split and we
actually had a good, lengthy discussion on the merits of each
project. I personally felt 50/50 between the Survival Horror Project
and the Off the Map project, more so that I was happy to do either on
depending on what the group decided. It soon became clear though,
despite having to change a few minds that we all thought that the Off
the Map project, which we were all initially meant to be doing
anyway, had lots of potential, as we began to edge towards a final
decision we discussed the elements involved within old, dirty narrow
17<sup>th</sup> century streets of London and the imagery finally
began to compose itself inside my mind. We also discussed the
potential, not only within the project itself, but that fact that it
is also an industry run competition meant that if we were able to
complete the project at a good standard there was a possibility of
having our work assessed and shared by members of the games industry
as selected Off the Map entrants would have their work chosen by a
panel of judges and showcased at events worldwide, including
GameCity8 in Nottingham.. The last thing we felt we needed before
cementing our decision was to discuss the options with our tutors but
it soon became clear that there really was no option, our tutors were
all confident that our group could construct a successful and
interesting Off the Map project, so it was final.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So now you know what the group project
is about I will go on and discuss the work I have completed as part
of the project week by week up until this week, week six, and
continue with feedback on a weekly basis.</span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-88604946386999789112013-03-06T15:17:00.001-08:002013-03-06T15:17:09.415-08:00Game Engines<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Errr, right okay, when I started this
course I really had no real idea how video games were made and put
together. I'm even jumping ahead already, before I had chosen to
study on this course I was going to go and study Physical Geography
at Edge Hill University. This was all my fault, I have loved playing
video games for a very long time and from a young age video games
have been a very big part of my life, but who knew you could take a
course on 'how to make them' at university?! I didn't! Like I said,
it was my fault, I really had no idea of the vast diversity of
available courses to chose from at universities across the country,
until I met my partner Sophia. It was actually her who put the idea
of studying video game art at university in my head, but that’s
another long story for another time. Where I'm going with this is,
despite my fondness for video games, and the enjoyment I've had from
my experiences of learning how to create video game art on this
course, unlike many other students on the course, when I first
started this course, I had literally no idea how video game art, or
any other 3D content was created. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I've
always been a bit of a tech geek, I liked to find out about how many
poly's a Gran Turismo car used, or how many gigaflops or whatever the
PS3 could kick out when it was released! But I really had no idea how
3D content was manufactured, what programs were used to create 3D
content, I'd never heard of 3DS Max or ZBrush, I never knew who
created the 3D content or the specific roles available within the
games industry. I didn't even no any 3D or 2D video game artists or
any with relevance to the area. I'd always focused my interest,
possibly due to the direction I was led within school and college, on
traditional and historically predominant artists and it was only
until I knew I was going to study on the Game Art and Design course
at DMU that I began to look at a variety of video game and concept
artists and their work, and even then I only looked at the bigger
names within the industry such as Daniel Dociu and Andrew Jones. </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />So
from starting the course and still even now, perhaps not everything,
but a lot of it has been entirely new to me, which in many ways has
made it harder than it could have been, or may be for other students.
I have thought for a while now that a big part of this has been
because I have always taken interest in lots and lots of things from
a very young age, were as a lot of people I have met since joining
the Game Art course have had very dedicated interests in the
surrounding fields such as the games themselves, concept art, comic
book art etc. I suppose its slightly weird, I've not actually met
anyone else on the course yet with such a strong interest, maybe even
more of an interest in something else video game unrelated such as
myself. Like I've said, video games have always been a very big part
of my life but I’ve always focused more on what games are coming
out and the reviews etc not on the art involved in the games. Again
I've always been interested in art, and, hopefully, good at it! But
as mentioned I’ve always taken interest in as may things as I could
and tried my best to be good at those things too! I’ve taken part
in many sports and athletic activities, I’ve always enjoyed
reading, watching films, listening to music and I really enjoyed most
if not all of the different subjects at school. Still to this day I
find myself taking interest in lots of things, I enjoy as I always
have learning new things and being open to new discoveries, which is
possibly one of the reasons life has led me down the path of
'artist', but, like I've mentioned, unlike many other students on the
course, video games aren't what I'd define as my main interest. I'd
actually say that motor sport, in particular motorcycle racing is my
main following/ hobby/ interest, but maybe this is a healthy thing as
a video games artist? Being able to detach myself from games to
pursue other interests keeps the creation of video game content on
the course feeling much fresher for me. Perhaps only time will tell
if this will eventually have a positive effect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back to the main point of the article,
which is my opportunity to talk about video game engines. Oh dear! I
really have no idea about game engines in all honesty apart from my
brief experiences with the Unreal Development Kit earlier in the year
and most recently a very brief try of CryENGINE 3 to begin
familiarising myself with it for the group project. That being said I
feel I'm in no place to give information on the variety of available
game engines as there are much more appropriate places to go for that
information, such as the internet! I would strongly advise, if you're
in a similar situation to myself that you do as I have, and if you
have a particular interest in game engines, even to find out what
they are! I strongly recommend you get on Google and begin to
research what engines are available and what they offer to artists,
programmers, developers etc.<br /><br />So what I will talk about instead
is my initial opinion of game engines from my very recent
introduction to them. I have touched previously on game engines in
one of my previous blogs about Level Design when talking about
pre-programmed software which makes the creation of video game
content much more accessible with individual skills relating to game
creation to take a much more active role within the design process
and a games creation, so, I will try my best not to repeat myself.
What I was talking about here was Game Engines. Game Engines are
effectively middleware software that enables professionals and
hobbyists alike to manifest their ideas and concepts into fully
fledged and even releasable games. Not so long ago, every video game
was made individually, by the individual companies and developers
from scratch every time. A technique which has been around much
longer in other industries to create content quicker, more
efficiently, easier and by more people, such as the music industry,
where music creation computer software has enabled hobbyists to
create professionally sounding music from their own homes is now
becoming increasingly more common within the games industry. And this
is also true for large established developers too, and it is to use
and most importantly, reuse existing game engines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There are negative and positive points
for using game engines. I'd personally say from the information I
have at my dispense that they seem mostly positive. The complexity
and difficulty involved in making current generation video games in
always increasing and the industry itself is constantly becoming much
more competitive and a demanding industry to work than it has in the
past and this in itself is creating numerous problems for the
industry. Budgets are becoming smaller, and production times shorter,
with the increased time and in particular the expertise needed to
develop today’s games many people have turned to readily available
game engines such as Unreal Development Kit or CryENGINE. <br /><br />Typically
creating a video game would involve the extensive knowledge of
underlying code and programming to ensure that thinks work how they
should within said game, such as how objects or characters behave
within a game world. Basically writing the rules of the way a game
world will work from scratch. This would usually be very expensive
and time consuming and easy to say very difficult and complicated
making it even harder for other roles, especially artists to have a
bigger say in the final outcome of a game, at least making the whole
design process potentially very restrictive. With a game engine this
'leg work' has already been done and effectively the rules are
already in place and with engines such as CryENGINE the actual use of
the engine is made much more user friendly due to a well thought out,
clean user interface. Most people are probably used to using Windows
or OS X, and probably never even realise that these things aren't
'the computer' or how the computer works, they are, in their simplest
forms, pieces of software or graphical interfaces designed to let the
general public use a computer easily without which I assume 99.9%
wouldn't have a clue! Microsoft spend billions developing the Windows
platform, consistently striving to make it more user friendly (some
might say they're not doing the best of jobs!), but without most
people even realising we find this everywhere and everyday in our
lives. You couldn't operate your television without the user friendly
designed menu system, and even 60 years ago, your grandparents
couldn't of tuned their wireless into the correct radio channel
without some sort of radio receiver dial. This is basically what a
game engine delivers to people like myself, it offers the chance to
create video game content quickly, to iterate on that content and to
finalise it without leaving the comfort of the engine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Game engines, such as the CryENGINE
haven’t just appeared overnight and have also taken many millions
of pounds to create, CryENGINE itself having taken over ten years to
develop and is still constantly undergoing improvements and changes.
I think its important to realise though that although it may appear
that there is a danger that because game engines can make it
extremely accessible to begin creating video game content that there
is potential for too many bad, un-thought-out games being released
willy-nilly, that is, in the most part not yet the case. As I’ve
mentioned, current generation video games are extremely complex and
difficult to make and a game engine offers the individual roles
within the games industry, i.e. artist, the opportunity to have much
more important and much less restrictions on the content they are
able to create, the individual will still need to have, at least a
solid knowledge of their individual area of expertise. A game engine
then allows these areas to come together and create professional
looking content on a much smaller scale in much smaller teams that
would usually take an entire development studio to accomplish.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Finally then, I would like to think
that game engines are a positive thing. Its really not worth getting
into an argument but creativity can be lost quickly and easily for
many reasons, and the opportunity for anyone to be able to start
creating easily, and most importantly to enjoy that can only be a
good thing. I think that no matter what, it will still take dedicated
professionals to create AAA game titles for the public to enjoy which
should be good for me! And that if developers are willing to share
their engines for teams of professionals to use to create content
then we should see the continuing sophistication and unbelievable
creations of dedicated and passionate game developers, and if this
creation can filter through to the general public however basic,
whether it be creating levels in Little Big Planet or building a
community in The Sims then the spread of creation is a good thing and
there will hopefully be a continued respect for the professional and
a willing to pay for that privilege to experience somebody else’s
creations. Is it also worth noting that it cost around $1.2million
for a commercial license to use CryENGINE 3?! So, you know, this
gives some kind of idea how much it would cost for a developer to
develop a game from scratch if most are finding it cheaper to publish
using these existing engines. I think that there will always be room
for higher budget developments, fingers crossed, but engines mean
that developers can focus more on the content creation and hopefully
continue to deliver us with fantastic looking video games.</span></div>
Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-65178823196890708622013-02-20T03:50:00.000-08:002013-02-20T03:51:12.198-08:00Opportunity<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Last week we had the opportunity to be
given a lecture from Doug Ellison, who is the Visualisation Producer
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. I was
extremely excited for this as I have always been somewhat of a space
geek and an avid admirer of NASA and what they're capable of doing,
and the unbelievable lengths they go to to reveal the unknown
benefiting the whole of mankind. </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />As I’ve mentioned Doug is
the Visualisation Producer at JPL, which during the lecture he
explained means that he works together with programmers and 3D
artists, as well as the NASA engineers and scientists involved in
NASA's missions to create visualisation tools for the general public.
In a nut shell I believe he designs and creates key visual elements,
primarily animations of various NASA missions to help less space
exploration savvy people like us better understand NASA's ideas,
objectives and the actual missions as well as to engage further with
the missions themselves. Because lets be honest, how much interest do
the general public really take in NASA today? I know I try my best
to, albeit it may be slightly harder to keep up here in the UK, but
with the wealth of information available today through the internet
that’s hardly an excuse. A few years ago I did buy myself the
NASA's greatest missions box-set on blu-ray, on its release day no
less, (I did mention I’ve always been a bit of a NASA fan didn't
I?). I also have NASA on facebook, which, however briefly, lets me
keep up to date to some extent on NASA's current missions etc. But,
on July 20<sup>th</sup> 1969, yes that’s right, when Neil Armstong
and Buzz Aldrin aboard the Apollo 11 were the first men to ever step
on the moon (the third man who stayed on board Apollo during the
first moon walk was Michael Collins, and he was just as vitally
important to the success of the mission, so don’t forget that
name!), it is estimated that over 500 million people watched every
moment of the arrival of Apollo 11's arrival on the Lunar
surface.<br /><br />So why such little interest today? Well there's
probably many reasons and I'm probably not the best person to venture
a guess as to why, but I can tell you that it isn't just our
generation that have suddenly lost interest, interest has fallen over
the past 30 years or so, and one reason is that NASA missions
eventually become so routine that people began to feel it was too
easy, especially compared to the likes of the Apollo missions which
some might say were near impossible feats of human exploration. But
also the Apollo missions were some of, some might say were actually
the biggest and most incredible things humankind have ever done bar
none. The engineering, the science, the discoveries and especially
the finances were just mind blowing. But since the Apollo missions I
myself, since being born in 1990 have been treated by NASA to some
life defining experiences that I will always hold as part of my
generation. For a start the Space Shuttle missions which I have been
fortunate enough to be alive over half of the Shuttles life time up
until the sad, but amazingly proud day of July 8, 2011, when I was
able to see Shuttle Atlantis on the last ever Shuttle launch spread
over the news. I am also growing up during the era when we see the
International Space Station continue to expand, and one of the
greatest things to be part of is the recent Mars landings, and most
recently the landing of the Mars Rover Curiosity, and I can only
thank NASA and count my blessings that I am fortunate to be alive at
such a time of continuing great missions and discoveries. <br /><br />And
so I come back to Doug Ellison and his role at NASA, and if I'm not
mistaken, if you were decent enough to follow the news during
Curiosity decent onto the Mars surface, and shame on you if your
didn't, then you'll of seen various animations explaining to the
general public how the Mars Lander, and Rover worked and would
continue to carry out various tasks on the Martian surface. Highly
detailed animations, like those shown on BBC news, developed by the
Visualisation team at JPL, with whom Doug is the Producer, helped to
explain to the general public all of these things and helped us to
feel engaged with NASA's ground breaking mission and subsequent
discoveries. And it can be simply put that Doug's team at JPL, play
the vital role of connecting us, the general public with NASA's
current missions by moving NASA's communication with us into the 21<sup>st</sup>
century with such animations as well as interactive experiences
online such as JPL's 'Eye's on the Solar System' which I believe Doug
worked on, and if you haven’t tried it yet here's the link, you
must go and have a go, its awesome;<br /><br /><a href="http://eyes.nasa.gov/index.html">http://eyes.nasa.gov/index.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And we also see interactive augmented
reality apps on the iPad, such as Spacecraft 3D, which I've also been
fortunate to have a play with, which allows you to select from a
number of various spacecraft and learn about and interact with the
spacecraft, seeing how they move right on your dining table! Again
cool! But most importantly these experiences provided by Doug and his
team give NASA the opportunity to educate, and to help people like
myself learn about the engineering feats used to expand our knowledge
and understanding of space alongside the great minds at NASA. So I
thank Doug and his team for providing us with these opportunities and
experiences, and I also thank Doug himself for the great lecture he
gave us on his work and his experiences within NASA and his life
leading up to such a wonderful role, it was an absolute pleasure to
be part of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I would like to end this blog by
further cementing my appreciation of NASA and the benefits they
provide for all of humanity, as some may not really understand what
NASA has really provided us over the years. When I was seven I was
unbelievably lucky to be taken to Florida by my Grandparents, and
during our second week there, when everyone went back to Disney Land,
my Grandad took me alone to Kennedy Space Centre, as mentioned I have
always, always been so interested in space and NASA. It is an
experience I will never forget. (I was quite disappointed to learn
there was to be a Shuttle Launch on the same day the very next week!
As you can imagine I was more gutted than dissapointed!), but
nonetheless, the visit to Kennedy Space Centre was one of the most
wonderful things I've done in my life so far, to experience the
rocket gardens and actually see inside some of the rockets, to go
through the huge facility with an actual Saturn V rocket inside, the
sheers size of it, and even at such a young age to have an
appreciation of how this unbelievably massive thing could get into
space was purely overwhelming to say the least. And last but not
least, despite not seeing the Shuttle Launch the next week, I was
able to stand on the viewing platform were thousands of people would
stand the very next week to witness the launch, see the launch pad
off in the distance, see the countdown clock right in front of me
and, amazingly, to see the Space Shuttle Discovery a mere few hundred
feet away on the back of a mover on its way to the launch pad!!! I
count myself very lucky for this experience, and as you can probably
guess, it is one I will never forget.<br /><br /><br />
</span></div>
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</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oh! and for those of you who haven’t
yet guessed, the title of my blog post 'Opportunity', not only
describes my experiences of NASA as mentioned in my blog, but, it is
also the name of one of the twin Mars Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity)
which landed on Mars on January 25, 2004, and unbelievably is still
active to this day 9 years later! What more can be said about NASA's
amazing work!</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cfbFInarEUY/USS3ZTwSMEI/AAAAAAAAAQg/EoynJvireHs/s1600/img_apolloSaturnV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cfbFInarEUY/USS3ZTwSMEI/AAAAAAAAAQg/EoynJvireHs/s640/img_apolloSaturnV.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The Saturn V Rocket at Kennedy Space Centre</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VfnY9VCuesA/USS4hT1WeyI/AAAAAAAAAQo/g1u5C3xTAHg/s1600/ksc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VfnY9VCuesA/USS4hT1WeyI/AAAAAAAAAQo/g1u5C3xTAHg/s640/ksc.jpg" width="430" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Me, age 7, at Kennedy space Centre.</div>
Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-53904154517927049572013-02-15T03:40:00.000-08:002013-02-15T03:40:29.039-08:00The Mortal Engines Project<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The last project for Game Production
was a character project based on the book Mortal Engines by Philip
Reeve. The characters we modelled had to be a self portrait in the
style of Mortal Engines. I was excited for this project, I've always
enjoyed reading and thought the Mortal Engines story was fun to read
with plenty of good descriptive writing of various imagery,
especially the characters. I've also always enjoyed reading because
it gives me the opportunity to imagine for myself how a story would
work visually so this projects has given me the opportunity to
develop my ideas into a completed final design with concepts and a 3D
model.</span><br />
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As per usual the project had some
outlined aims and requirements specific to it. Our models needed to
show good appreciation of the final aesthetic, proportion, colour,
silhouette and detail density, and the character models were to be
judged on anatomical accuracy and artistic interpretation as well as
the technical requirements including, an efficient mesh with good
surface topology, that demonstrates an eye for sculpting convincing
body form, muscles and facial structure. As usual our tutor was
looking for an efficient use of textures, conveying the different
surface qualities such as skin, clothing etc.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was a little concerned
initially considering the time frame that had been given to complete
the project, which included concepting ideas for the character,
including sketches of various different ideas considering the
different character elements from the book, complete with a final
idea and reference drawings from the front, side and back for use
when modelling. As many reference images were then collected in
relation to my final character idea as well as mood boards and colour
palettes. The project then required me to model my high poly version,
unwrap and texture it, I then planned on learning some basic Zbrush
functions to create and bake normal maps and ambient occlusion maps.
My final model then had to be rigged as well as final renders being
taken for presentation purposes. A low poly 'LOD' then had to be
modelled, unwrapped and textured. Considering all of these components
there was an astonishing amount of work to do in the four weeks give
in my opinion, and as you'll find out, I did struggle to complete the
work that I did.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As
mentioned, I started by creating a number of concept sketches and
then a final design for my character. In my final design I decided to
mix various elements from my four concept sketches. With the 'Mortal
Engines' world, I imagined that lots of things would be salvaged to
be used like described in the book when London eats another city. My
final idea was that instead of my Pirate 'me' character having a
plain wooden stump instead of a foot he could have a car piston which
could move when walking. This would add interest to my character
design and would also create a challenging element when it comes to
rigging the character. I also decided to add a mechanical hand on the
same side as the foot, the idea is that my character would've
sustained an injury to that side of his body and had salvaged parts
to repair himself, it also gives the character consistency in the
interest of his appearance. The final designs are shown below;</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hXcl0jkC0xw/UR4eBF_jAuI/AAAAAAAAAP4/q6QoXc4kbww/s1600/preps5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hXcl0jkC0xw/UR4eBF_jAuI/AAAAAAAAAP4/q6QoXc4kbww/s640/preps5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--S6mIYQJnSQ/UR4eAxqIYfI/AAAAAAAAAP0/qJUwkIOtWvg/s1600/preps6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--S6mIYQJnSQ/UR4eAxqIYfI/AAAAAAAAAP0/qJUwkIOtWvg/s640/preps6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
modelling process went quite well, I feel that I am now at a stage
where I am able to model with a reasonable amount of confidence,
knowledge and experience in creating accurate models with clean
geometry. After first creating a base model, with basic anatomy as a
starting point I then began to focus on modelling the head, being as
the project was a 'self portrait' I needed to try and get as close a
likeness to myself as possible within a reasonable amount of time. I
modelled the head using the box modelling method, following the
previous method I used from the gladiator project and the tutorial
from year one. It went well but slower than expected, and I was
having to add lots of loops to increase the geometry meaning I was
constantly going over the same area refining and optimising the
geometry from all view ports. I finally reached a point that I
was happy with, a point were the tweaks I was making were so small it
seemed unnecessary to continue for such small details, again, if the
time frame had been longer it is certainly an area were I would have
continued. I then spent time beginning to add clothes to my body mesh
by extruding out from the centre of the body and reattaching at the
edges to create the jacket. For the pants I have simply rescaled the
legs and added some extra loops where I'd expect there to be more
defined creases such as around the knee area and above the boot. I
also added some twist to individual loops to make the clothing seem
more natural instead of pre-planned. I found that I spent a lot of
time modelling the mechanical hand which was not as easy as I'd
anticipated, especially in terms of how time consuming it was.
Because the mechanical arm/ hand had to be rigged I specifically had
to think and plan about which elements to include, where the hand was
going to bend and where the joints needed to be placed specifically.
Despite this I think the final hand looks great.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Into
the texturing process and I was looking at taking a new approach to
the process. Usually after unwrapping I will do the diffuse texture
first, then go onto the normal map and finally the specular map. This
time I planned to use the baking method to bake my high poly models
(created in Zbrush) onto the mesh to create my normal maps and this
time ambient occlusion maps also. From the baked maps I will then
paint the diffuse maps using the UV coordinates as well as the
information that has been baked in the the normal and AO maps. The
first bake I did was the main body. I decided to do this first as I
was trying to use ZBrush to sculpt various elements especially
creases in the clothing. As I had never used ZBrush before, and
because time for the was short, I decided to stick to the basic tools
of ZBrush and use it purely for creating some defined creases in the
clothes. ZBrush was a little daunting to get my head around but I
managed to develop some simple techniques to get the final effect in
the creased clothes I desired. I decided to import the ZBrush model
back into 3DS Max to bake the normal and Ao maps in that program
instead of using ZBrush's render to texture tool. I was informed by a
third year that this would potentially yield better results because
I'd be baking straight onto my actual model. This is what I did and I
didn't have a chance to experiment with the two options so I cant
conclude if one method is in fact better than another. I also baked
the individual high poly props including the gun and telescope as
individual elements. This just meant that I had to use the mix normal
maps feature in nDo2 to combine the various normals I had baked which
was an easy enough process. This was the same with the individually
baked AO maps but these were just combined easily within Photoshop.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Using
as much as my reference material as possible I created my diffuse
texture maps. I also tried to texture my model to resemble my initial
concept paintings as closely as possible. This meant that for a lot
of elements, particularly the clothing I had to work quite hard in
manipulating various reference images to get the desired final
effect, including merging various colours, patterns, textures, and
other things such as stains etc. For the mechanical hand and foot I
used some good metal texture reference images I had gathered but when
applied to the model it looked quite plain. I decided to also overlay
a rust texture which I had taken myself last year which I then
painted out in areas to show rust in the desired way, such as in the
joints etc. I was quite disappointed, and a little annoyed at how my
reference images for my head had come out. They appeared to be very
low resolution and not a particularly good quality, even worse when
they were stretched to fit my UV's. In the end I realised that my
camera had been set to manual focus instead of automatic which was a
silly mistake. Fortunately the lower quality reference images seemed
to lend themselves well to the model as the skin tone looked much
better. The final texture that needed to be done was the specular.
This time I decided to try out a colour specular map which was to be
placed both in the Specular Level and Specular Colour map slots
within 3DS Max. They were quite easy to prepare as from what I can
understand it is simply manipulating the diffuse maps to get the
desired effect. I did this by changing the hue/ saturation/ lightness
adjustments as well as slightly changing the levels when needed. The
only major change to colour was in the skin tone. From a tutorial I
followed it showed that the skin tone within a specular map should
have a darker blue tone to it and this seemed to work well on the
models.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once
the model was finished I hadn’t left myself much time at all to
complete the rigging. Fortunately I have now rigged a few models,
from the gladiator project to the texturing competition last year,
and once I had picked up the tools and functions of the skin modifier
I was fairly comfortable with getting a basic but solid rig.
Unfortunately that was a long time ago and my mind needed refreshing
somewhat, particularly with the method of setting up the biped
correctly and the specific tools and how to use them properly and
efficiently within the skin modifier. Once I had everything set up
properly though I began to remember quite quickly and followed a
method I used last time for getting a nice clean rig. The method
includes attaching verts in the centre of bones a full 1 and verts
either side of a joint at a 0.6/0.4 or 0.7/0.3 respectively and then
try to follow a steady gradient of weights. I then use the animation
I've set up with the biped to change any verts weights independently
that look out of place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With
hardly any time left to complete the project I tried my very best to
try and optimise my model to a low poly LOD. The aim was to do a 2000
tri low poly model but after many hours refining and adjusting I was
able to pull the model down to roughly 2,700 tris which is really
still a way off from the initial aim, but, considering the high poly
tri count really isn't bad. I also attempted a diffuse bake onto the
low poly model, which was a really rushed job, it hasn't come out too
bad in all honesty but I know I could do a much better job if I had
more time to spend on it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There
are many positives about the final outcome of this project. The main
one being that I am extremely happy with the final model as a whole,
I think it presents a very interesting character, with a good colour
palette which is consistent throughout yet diverse in its
presentation.
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
am happy with learning some basic uses of ZBrush which has given me a
good stepping stone towards better normal map creation and although
I’ve already been familiar with baking I think this project has
helped develop my skills in this area.<br /><br />I dont know what more I
can say in regards to the time given for this project other than to
say I have struggled to get the work done in time. I have tried to
balance a quick and efficient work flow whilst still trying to
achieve a high standard of work but until you begin the different
aspects of the whole process you don’t realise how much time each
aspect is capable of consuming. This has been a hard but valuable
lesson to learn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bcJKfYEKCfQ/UR4eVFOHqbI/AAAAAAAAAQE/H4KxKJA5lQA/s1600/final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="354" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bcJKfYEKCfQ/UR4eVFOHqbI/AAAAAAAAAQE/H4KxKJA5lQA/s640/final.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Final renders taken in Marmoset Toolbag</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GB78qz5Lm5I/UR4eaLUImcI/AAAAAAAAAQM/Blr6NjM2ReE/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GB78qz5Lm5I/UR4eaLUImcI/AAAAAAAAAQM/Blr6NjM2ReE/s640/1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Final renders taken in 3DS Max 2012, showing the final model with normal maps and Ao maps applied.</span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-43184972017741620772013-02-07T12:28:00.002-08:002013-02-07T12:28:39.962-08:00Missing Projects (Catch Up Part Two) Blitz Environment Project<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'll take this opportunity to show you
the work I produced for project two of the Game Production segment of
the Game Art course. The second project of my second year for Game
Production was another project from Blitz Games studios and based on
a live art test they set for prospective employees. It was another
good opportunity to gain experience of actual projects set by real
game studios.<br /><br />We were provided with two building frontages in
the Blitz folder, the task was to create a third building to sit
between the two provided befitting the age, style and location of the
current buildings. We were given some examples of styles but
obviously I wanted to do some concepting before hand to explore
various possible outcomes.<br /><br />I initially brainstormed some ideas
for various building types, I then chose six of my favourites and
began to gather as much possible visual reference, mainly from the
internet to support my concepts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My final concepts are below;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My initial thoughts were that I wanted
my model to be unique and, although having to befit the provided two
buildings, I wanted mine to also make an impression, I didn't want it
to completely blend with the other buildings, I also wanted my
building to be a focal point inside the scene.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Initially
I decided to model the strip building, I thought it would be
something different and it would be a good idea to do a day time
scene and a night time scene in which I could illuminate the neon
lighted signs as well as learn how to create neon signs once imported
into UDK. After some thought I couldn’t see any reason why I
couldn’t merge two of my building concepts into one model, and as I
also quite liked the idea of the billboard building, I didn’t want
to do it on its own as the rest of the building looked quite plain so
I decided to model the strip club with a billboard on top of it.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To
begin modelling I used elements from the provided Blitz models in
order to give myself a foundation to begin working from. I took the
Blitz models right down to their most basic forms and then began
modelling on top of them. The odd thing about this project is that no
definite tri limit (or texture limit) was set but a rough guideline
was given by suggesting to use the provided Blitz models as reference
for tri limit. The Blitz buildings were around 5000 tri’s each so I
decided to try and stay around this count with my own model. I also
decided to stick as closely as possible to my concepts whilst
modelling so that I could finish the model with the desired look.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At
the beginning of the project I was very satisfied with the outcome of
my concepts and felt like the project was going to go well but now
I’m at the end I feel because a lot of work has been done in just a
short amount of time the work hasn't been to the best of my ability
and lacking in most areas for the sake of just getting it done in the
time frame.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
biggest positive for me in this project has been learning how to use
and implement NDO2 within my work. It seems to be a very powerful
piece of software and with further use I believe it is going to
complement my work greatly in the future.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
am not completely satisfied with the final model for my building. I
think it looks interesting from top to bottom but I do also feel that
some areas are lacking quite a bit, particularly the middle section
were there is just a row of windows which looks quite boring and
breaks the detail between the sign and billboard at the top and the
entrance and signs at the bottom. I also feel that some extra detail
could of potentially been added at the bottom of the model.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I
am also not completely happy with the outcome of the renders, one
reason is that I was a little unsure how exactly to set up the camera
to properly demonstrate the environment scene. The other issue I had
was with the outcome of the night-time scene as I would of liked more
time in which to research and set up lighting, in particular the
glowing neon signs for the night renders.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-66297322184385902162013-02-07T11:42:00.004-08:002013-02-07T11:44:20.141-08:00The Art and Science of Level Design<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">From my research its fairly apparent
that level design is as much as, if not more so a technical skill as
well as an artistic skill. In fact, its most definitely a
technical skill. Level design is a varied discipline which involves
various methods such as concepts, sketches, 3D models and
documentation to describe the interactive environment of a games
universe.<br /><br />In earlier 2D video games, such as Mario or Sonic,
level design was somewhat more straightforward, it may of involved
simple but major elements of the game, such as the placing of
obstacles and enemies, power-ups. A designer would primarily focus on
the consistency of the levels most of the time concentrating on
making progressing levels in ascending order according to difficulty
rather than a progressing story line.<br /><br />Today's level design for
next gen video games which include high detailed, 3D game
environments, some of which are vast, is some what of a herculean
task. It is an ongoing process throughout a games development from
pre-production all the way through to completion. This means that
level design is no longer the job of just one person or programmer.
Typically studios use a team of level designers consisting of
designers, programmers, artists and engineers who give input on every
detail from the placement of a crate or plant, to rolling landscapes,
aesthetic details such as texture budgets at certain locations,
colour use, lighting and environmental conditions.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because the design process is a large
one, both in time and work, it will always be strategically and
comprehensively planned to follow a methodical procedure. Studios
will plan in various different ways but a typical design process will
include first and foremost (as with any other design process) an
idea. Gathering visual reference and the concepting, and most
importantly setting a world scale for the whole process to follow. 3D
blocking in, followed by texturing that will evolve in detail as the
design process progresses along with the development of the game.
Adding environmental and atmospheric conditions such as lighting,
rain, mist/ fog etc and perhaps further detailing and texturing. The
design will then move into final stages, any extra detailing will
need to be completed ready for testing, tweaking and bug checks ready
for the games release.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Level design has evolved massively over
a a short period of time to now include realistic dynamic lighting
effects as well as realist physics and now involves the design
taking place in level editors or game engines. Pre-programmed
software makes it easier for people with individual skill sets to
actively input into the design process, work can be carried out much
quicker and more efficiently, and there is much more scope and
control given to the user. For a while now, level editors have even
been included with games releases , a good example being the Unreal
Editor included with various Unreal games such as Unreal Tournament
allowing even the players, with no experience of video game design to
involve themselves in using pre-made assets included in various
editors to make there own levels. Another great example of a more
recent game to include a user controlled level editor is Little Big
Planet for the Playstation3. This game makes an exceptional approach
of actively designing the game around the mindset of an inbuilt level
creation tool for user created content and levels and not just as an
extra feature included with, instead of just being an extra feature
included with the game. It is now estimated that there are over 6
million user generated games and levels for little big planet which
is just astonishing. For some games it has even gone as far as user
generated content being sold, making just typical gamers, members of
the general public, in some cases hundreds of thousand of pounds per
year. This is becoming more of a big deal, so much so that certain
individual game companies, such as Valve, are taking great notice in
this shift in content generation by the gamers, which is starting to
evolve the business plans of major corporations and developers to
work alongside users making their own game content to share profits
and much more complicated financial business properties that I have
no idea about but I can assure you are readily being taken into
account! User generated game content is no doubt playing a major role
in the constantly evolving games industry, and some may go as far as
to say that our roles as game artists may be under threat as good
quality content only becomes easier to produce. On the other hand,
there is a clear difference between good quality content and high
quality and I'd like to think that there will most definitely be a
demand for video game content to be produced at a professional
capacity. <br /><br />Level design revolves around certain important
rules, or better still, goals which it strives to produce. The
combined skills involved within a levels design of artists,
programmers, script writers, graphic designers, 3D modellers, sound
engineers ultimately has only a few main goals, whether the game is
set in a sci-fi world or a medieval England. To provide the gamer
with objectives and quality gameplay, and most importantly to create
an immersive experience. </span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-18213096842369793682013-02-07T07:39:00.002-08:002013-02-07T07:40:28.298-08:00Missing Projects (Catch Up Part One)<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So here's some feedback on previous
visual design projects that I promised. In project three we spent our
time in Leicester City centre studying the urban environment and
taking influence from the work of Gordon Cullen. Cullen was actually
a very influential British architect and urban designer and produced
works representing the visual language of cities and urban
landscapes, i.e. cityscapes.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Taking more of an influence from
Cullen's quick style sketches, which I found myself taking a
particular interest in, I started by walking around Leicester City
centre, taking plenty of reference images and completing some quick
sketches on location too. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">After returning home I compiled my
reference images and preparation sketches and after completing a
couple more sketches using fine liner and marker pen to try and
capture the visual style of Cullen's work I wanted to complete a few
more drawings in colour. One of the Cullen examples given to us buy
our Tutor Chris appeared to be fine liner and colouring pencil with
some very expressive fluid marks. Trying to represent Cullen’s
style again I completed two further larger sketches using colouring
pencil of DeMontfort university, somewhere obviously particularly
meaningful to me within Leicester City.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To finish this project
I also completed three smaller sketches using water colour, a medium
I was unable to find being used in any of Cullen’s work yet I found
the use of watercolours lent themselves well to the visual style. I
have a few reasons for my fondness for his style of work. The actual
ability to transfer as much information, particularly within built
up, dense urban areas quickly and technically accurate is a skill we
have been practising as part as our development as game artist from
day one of the Game Art and Design course. As well as this, I find
the rough, quick style expressive and lends is self perfectly in
conveying the unmasked, dirtiness of a lived in, used and abused
cityscape.</span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-73951838752626881762013-01-18T13:39:00.000-08:002013-01-18T13:40:13.834-08:00Where have I been?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Oh
dear, I must admit I feel very guilty for my absence away from
blogger. So what shall I blame? The Christmas break? The heavy work
load? The constant astronomical amount of things to at home away from uni? All
three put together? Well I cant and shouldn't moan, it could always
be worse, I assure you, and i think the positive to take away from
the previous paragraph, is, however little, I have been working
nonetheless. So, i'll take this opportunity to share with you some
work I completed over the Christmas break, skipping out a project or
two (I will come back to them in later blogs. I'd began the vehicle
design project at uni before we broke for Christmas but never managed
to complete it before we moved on to other projects. My mind as it
is, when we started the project I found it very difficult to come up
with some concrete ideas with what approach I should take with it. I
wont go into it all again, but the events of the last few years are
still hitting hard, possibly worse now than it has been, which is
ironic as everything is as good as I could of ever hoped for during
the difficult time. I am now beginning to understand that even though
the past is now starting to fade, the results it has left for me
personally in terms of stress, worry and anxiety are still here and
making it very hard to produce work to best of my ability, and sadly,
making it hard to enjoy my work. What is getting to me the most
though is the affect the past few years has had on my mind, my
thought processes, my memory, my thinking. And so I can come back to
beginning the vehicle design project. My mind is usually buzzing with
ideas and excitement when we have a project like this, but not this
time, my mind feels like it has a block on it, I'm coming up with
ideas but they're not amounting to anything, I cant get my mind to
turn them into the idea I want to run with and its frustrating. I
have some ideas and I make sketches in my book. At first I wanted to
do a huge industrial cargo train of the future, maybe part of an
apocalyptic, science fiction work. Some of my sketches resemble a HR
Giger style.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All
too quick my enthusiasm for where the project is going is fading, I
feel like what I'm doing has been done before, not original at all,
and I see the work others are producing around me which all seems
great and I just cant seem to get into it. I really have been losing
my enthusiasm for what I'm doing lately, my passion for game art.
This is all for another blog, but I'm really starting to struggle
enjoying what I'm doing, and again it all goes back to the past few
years. The stres is making me unbelievably tired and as a result
unproductive. The project is put aside until the Christmas break.
After being home for a week over Christmas I thought I better pick
this project back up but again my mind is a blank and does just not
seem to be doing anything. Aghhh! I decide I need to pick something
and run with it, no matter what, just follow wherever it leads me and
produce something of a final. I cant blame myself entirely, vehicle
design is hard. Most concept art is easy, I could do that, just paint
some fancy looking thing that looks cool. But that's not why I'm here
on this course, and after the Vehicle Design lecture its obvious that
a lot more needs to go into planning and concepting a vehicle design
than meets the eye. The vehicle needs purpose, scale, form, surface
quality. The vehicle must exist and resemble something that could
physically work in a real world. It cant be propelled by magic, if
its a land vehicle it will probably have wheels, if its a plane it
will probably have wings. If its a plane it will definitely have
wings. I decide to design a concept for a second space shuttle. It
seems relevant, I believe NASA are currently looking into the design
and workings of the second shuttle, and its something that has
existed before so, considering my state of mind, it feels more
accessible, as I can gather information on a variety of things such
as form, shape, material, vehicle usage, colour and most importantly
it's something I'm interested in anyway. So i begin to scribble some
shapes down and then go into some more detailed sketches, thinking on
one side about the design and how the vehicle would actually work and
on the other hand trying to keep the idea quite conceptual (as far as
I can take it).</span></span>
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">I
begin to question the design I’ve come up with. I have initially
taken inspiration from large cruise liners and the movie Sunshine. I
have also imagined that the Shuttle II will be used for manned
missions to Mars. The design seems a little too far fetched and
inconsistent with the first Shuttle design. So I decide to roll
everything back again and begin to scribble, again. This time more
refined, modern, bulky shapes, considering the first Space Shuttle
design. When I begin to concept further I decide that I can begin to
push the boundaries of the design a bit further to satisfy to
conceptual outcome I hope to achieve at the end. I came up with a
extravagant wing design that has a one piece wing and winglet that
also surrounds the inner thrusters which looks quite cool. I also
added a more science fiction, bubble type window to the front taking
the idea from an astronauts helmet, with a gold glass. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">All
being considered I am actually very happy with the outcome of this
project. I could argue that the final images where somewhat rushed
together but they actually present themselves quite nicely. I will
end the post with my final three images of my Shuttle II concept;</span></span><br />
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-1493782762841721602012-11-07T12:17:00.001-08:002012-11-07T12:17:09.553-08:00Composition<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="" name="hotword10"></a><a href="" name="hotword9"></a><a href="" name="hotword8"></a><a href="" name="hotword7"></a><a href="" name="hotword6"></a><a href="" name="hotword5"></a><a href="" name="hotword4"></a><a href="" name="hotword3"></a><a href="" name="hotword2"></a><a href="" name="hotword1"></a><a href="" name="hotword"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white;">"the act of combining parts or elements to form a whole."<br /><br />Composition
is one of those words. At its fundamental levels it is very easy to
understand but if somebody was to ask you on the spot, 'what is
composition', try to come up with a good answer. I think because the
word encompasses so many things it is very hard to explain in just a
few breaths, because absolutely everything and anything in
the universe has a composition, is composed of 'things'. Air is
composed of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% 'other stuff', the
composition of a cake is the ingredients you used in order to bake
it, it is the elements that are used to put something together. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;"><br /></span>In
art, composition is the the arrangement of the visual elements or
'ingredients' in a piece of art work or even a photograph, and the
visual elements are the principles of visual art, basically the tools
or rules/ guidelines that an artist will use in order to
arrange/ organize the visual elements or 'compose' the visual
elements in order to create a piece of art work. Composition is the
main aspect of putting things together in the right way, and when
things are 'composed' or assembled the right way it means that, that
thing can work properly. In art, a successful composition
means that, that piece of art work will be aesthetically pleasing,
interesting or to put it simply, nice to look at.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />Like I've said,
the visual elements are the ingredients needed to 'compose' any piece
of artwork. Understanding the elements 'ingredients' of a cake might
be easy, maybe not for some but you get my point, so what are the
ingredients for art, the visual elements. There are many, some might
not be considered by certain artists to be visual elements but there
are a certain few which no doubt all artists would agree on to being
fundamental in the composition of artwork. so lets take a look at
them; </span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />Line;
theoretically there are no literal lines in nature, everything we see
is a product of light but an artist will use line-like shapes to
create distinct borders between objects in a scene to define colour,
contrast etc. It is one of the tools an artist will use to create the
illusion of a 3D object on a 2 dimensional surface. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />Shape
and proportion; a geometrical description of an object in a space.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.58cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Colour;
Colour is characterized by attributes such as hue, saturation and
brightness. Many artists agree that pure white and pure black
should not be used as they do not exist in reality (i wont get into
this argument right now)<span style="background: #ffffff;">. Colour
may also be used symbolically in order to describe, good,
bad, peace or innocence.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.58cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;"><br />Texture;
is the perception of the surface quality of an object in a space.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.58cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;"><br />Form;
similar to shape, it is the visual appearance of configuration of an
object in a space.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.55cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Value;
closely linked with colour and has a strong relationship with light
as light will dictate the value of an object, its lightness
or its tone.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.55cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />Space;
is the 3 dimensional extent in which objects have relative position
and direction. In artwork this can be used to create the illusion of
distance and direction.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.55cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />Understanding
the visual elements can be somewhat easy to understand but
unbelievably hard to apply to a piece of artwork. Again in comparison
to baking a cake, we have the ingredients, 'visual elements' but now
we need to know how to put them together to bake the cake. In this
case we understand what line and colour and form etc are but we now
need the 'recipe' to put them together into
a composition-ally successful piece of art work. In art,
the recipe for the composition of a piece of art work, ie
the organisation of these visual elements) is called the principles
or organisation. One reason why art can be so expressive and unique
is because there is no one way to organise the elements,
fundamentally it is the artists choice to determine what the centre
of interest, the focus of a piece of art work will be and the artist
can then use the ingredients, the visual elements to compose the
piece of art work. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.55cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />Because
there are any number of ways in order to organise the visual
elements, and may I add that not all of the visual elements need to
be used in every piece of art work, there is still one extra thing
needed in order to ensure that a piece of artwork is composition-ally
correct and therefore pleasing to look at. Basically the thing that
brings together the visual elements so that the piece of artwork
works. These are referred as simply
'compositional techniques'. A compositional technique is the
final arrangement of the visual elements in order
to create an aesthetically pleasing piece of art work.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.55cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />There
are a number of techniques again which can be used by an artist
to arrange the visual elements within their art work. Whilst
fundamentally the techniques are used as mentioned to create an
aesthetically pleasing piece of art work they are also used, and
equally as important, to create an interesting piece of art work for
the viewer to look at so they can be used to define mood
and invoke a reaction.<br /><br />Compositional techniques include;</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The
Rule of Thirds; "<span style="background-color: white;">The
method involves dividing the frame into thirds, vertically and
horizontally (so it actually becomes ninths), and then using those
lines to effectively bisect your image, using the lines to section
off areas of the image and using the nodes at which the lines cross
as key areas for points of interest. This rule, although very simple,
works extremely well when used effectively, for example, within a
landscape shot, the horizon could cross the frame along the lower
horizontal line, with the top of a mountain range crossing the upper
horizontal line. Similarly, with a portrait shot, the eyes could be
placed at the points at which the upper horizontal line bisects the
two vertical lines."</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.48cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Considering
all of this lets take some examples of art work, including my own and
see whether they work composition-ally.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.5cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-byw4lXuaCeA/UJq6ahQWLZI/AAAAAAAAAMM/kuKLWfd31Jo/s1600/finalruleofthirds2.jpg"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="226" name="graphics1" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-byw4lXuaCeA/UJq6ahQWLZI/AAAAAAAAAMM/kuKLWfd31Jo/s640/finalruleofthirds2.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 0.48cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #575757; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Above
is my latest piece of work, a digital painting of Bradgate Park in
Leicester. As you can see I have applied the rule of thirds here to
some extent by choosing to place the focal point of the
painting, ie the people standing on the top of the hill at one of the
points at which the horizontal and vertical lines intersect which
draws the views attention to this point creating interest within the
painting. Other techniques which have been applied here in order to
create this 'focus'</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">including
the varied tone in colour, darker areas around the people on the hill
and a lighter area where they are stood again draw the viewers eye to
that point.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BHFK-tXHoNI/UJq_B39XaEI/AAAAAAAAAMc/oPuGJ_A34_A/s1600/final+finalrot.jpg"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="255" name="graphics2" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BHFK-tXHoNI/UJq_B39XaEI/AAAAAAAAAMc/oPuGJ_A34_A/s640/final+finalrot.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Compare
this to last years Bradgate Park final above and I would
say that this piece of art work fails in its composition. As you can
see there is no definitive focal point. For the viewer this piece of
artwork is not comfortable to look at therefore it would not hold the
viewers attention ultimately failing as a piece of art.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> in
my own opinion. Can you tell I never liked this piece?</span></div>
<br />Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-78321659702842864562012-10-31T13:01:00.000-07:002012-10-31T13:02:15.325-07:00A Treat For Halloween!<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;">Halloween</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">is
here again and clearly the scariest thing about that is that we're
fast approaching another Christmas and another new year, I really
cant believe that its November tomorrow. So, this Halloween Ive
opted for a treat, but not in the form of candy, no, this treat comes
in the form of a Playstation game! So what? you're thinking, you've
got Resident Evil 6? been out for weeks, most people have completed
it, its more action than horror anyway. Well actually no, I havn't got
Resident Evil 6, dont want it really, dont really care, but I have
purchased and downloaded Resident Evil 3; Nemesis, on my
Playstation Vita, oh the nostalgia! No doubt one of the best and most
frightening of all the Resident Evil games alongside possibly
Veronica X. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Resident
Evil 3; Nemesis for me has created one of those moments in your life
were every time you see it, it instantly brings back all of those
frightened nights of the past. Now we must remember I must
of been around 10 years old, maybe even younger when I
played this game, (which has an age rating of 18), I was scared
shit-less to say the least. Its like re-watching old favorite horror
movies, the game has the same affect, I remember first watching the
original Texas Chainsaw Massacre around the same age, and the adverse
affects it has on your mind as a child stays with you for life, every
time you re-watch or in this case re-play.<br /><br />Now i wont
bore you with a review or anything like that, I just thought Id share
with you why I still love this game, and what memory's make
it still enjoyable for me to play today. Now these games are, for me
anyway, why there is such a fondness for all things Zombie
now-a-days. It was these games that kick started it all off,
obviously im not so narrow minded to say that these games started the
Zombie era, for me its quite clear that a certain Mr Romero made
'Zombie' so popular to this day, but I believe Resident Evil can be
praised for defining the 'survival horror' genre that we still love
today with game like Dead Island winning multiple awards last year
and games like Dead Space 3 on the horizon.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For
me the real world, gritty environments delivered by the
first Resident Evil games where just awesome. Camera angles we're
well placed to leave you always wondering what was around the next
corner, there wasn't really any music in the games, but the incessant
tapping of feet and small creaks, howls and blowing wind always
create a fantastic mood. The way the game would cut to an
animation of the door creaking open ever so slowly every time you
walked through one and most importantly how great is it that at 23
years old, on a small PS Vita Screen with small sound the game can
still make me jump! But there's one thing that stands out for me with
this game. Its something that any film has really yet to offer me,
possibly the Halloween movies, but even they cant come close to the
sense this game creates for me, and im going to leave you with this.
This game leaves me with the feeling, a sense of not being able to
get away from something that’s chasing you.<br /><br />Happy Halloween!</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T3qZ3Wdu3UQ/UJGC3o7pzUI/AAAAAAAAAL8/GVpnXIQgpZ4/s1600/IMG_9986%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="474" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T3qZ3Wdu3UQ/UJGC3o7pzUI/AAAAAAAAAL8/GVpnXIQgpZ4/s640/IMG_9986%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-50469592404131752172012-10-25T09:07:00.002-07:002012-10-25T09:08:27.486-07:00Why Do I Want An iPad Mini?<span style="font-family: inherit;">So
yesterday Apple announced the iPad mini, massive shock,
not, and, as with anything new in the world of gadgets and tech, I
want one. I dont know why I have this impulse to always want the
latest things, I've always been like that, maybe because
i'm a spoiled brat, dont care, I like to own new things,
especially new, shiny technology. There is an obvious appeal to all
of this new tech, obviously, as companies probably spend tens of
millions during development designing their new piece of
gadgetry, there's the smell, the feel,
but there's something i just cant put my finger on for why
i have this need to have these things, and i think that's why
its an impulse, its just an illogical urge to want to own new
gadgets. I think the closest i can come to describing what it is that
makes me want these things, is when i look at a new piece of tech, it
makes me say "wow, cool".</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">So
why do I want an iPad mini? Well, when any new piece of tech grabs my
attention, which is apparently way too often, i begin to compose as
big a list as possible for why said piece of technology is needed in
my life. What use i will have from it, how awesome it will be when
other people see you have the latest thing, i have the money and life
is short, what the hell just get yourself it, treat yourself, you've
had a hard week. It can be an early Christmas present, or its the
four week anniversary of starting your second year of uni,
you deserve a treat. So naturally, when the announcement for
the iPad mini came yesterday the list began, and in all
honesty, more often than not there not bad reasons. One, I love
reading books and for a good while now I've wanted to buy an
e-reader, sometimes certain technology can take a while to grab me,
for example, i love reading 'books', i like the feel of a new book
and the smell of it and was quite reluctant to get an e-reader from
fear of loosing the other charms of bending the pages back and
creasing the spine of a good book. So i seen a few friends with the
Kindle, it was good, yes, but not jaw-droppingly advanced
technology, and then I seen the Kindle Fire, which has finally been
released here in the UK now, its got a HD colour
screen, large memory, wi-fi with a
web browser, front facing camera and not a bad
price either, but something still wasn't grabbing me. Same with 3D, i
was sort of convinced it was just a passing fad, its good fun at the
pictures but again there's something missing, and then i seen it on
an actual television set in Curry's using the active shutter
technology and that was a genuine jaw dropping moment, it looks
great, and seen as me and the wife have just bought a new 3D TV,
(still waiting to buy some glasses), I'm actually excited, in
particularly to get stuck into some 3D gaming action, games like Gran
Turismo 5, Uncharted 3 and Motorstorm Apocalypse, which have all
been designed specifically to work for 3D just look awesome.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br />My
wife has an iPad 3rd generation, and its an awesome bit of kit, and
although i've wanted one, she doesn't mind me using it, its fantastic
for surfing the internet on, very fast and easy to use, but
there is no major reason why i should really need one, me and the
wife both have iPhone 4S's also and the iPad is basically a bigger
version but with no phone capability, this isn't a bad thing, its
great for watching films whilst travelling, chatting on Facebook,
playing games and using apps but none of these reason's can really
justify the high price tag, they aren't really serious uses for the
thing. Although one thing i still havn't got around to doing yet is
downloading some paint app for it which admittedly I've been
eager to do. Then Apple finally go ahead an announce the mini
version. Now, this is another thing i've always been a sucker for, i
love my tech, but make it smaller, slimmer, 'mini' and im as good as
sold, please dont ask why. So yeah, i think an iPad mini would be a
good investment for me, I can spend a little more money and better
tech and finally have a really decent e-reader as well as use it for
magazines and possibly comics such as ImagineFX, at the moment I am
also struggling to organise the unbelievable amount of crap being
thrown my way from all directions, although I do mostly just depend
on my brain to help me with that and if not i use my iPhone,
but surely an Ipad would be better for this? I can finally
do a bit of digital painting out and about wherever i may be, i can
suft the net, chat on Facebook, play some fun app games,
download some useful apps on something that fits much easier into my
hand and is much easier to carry around but still works as
good as an iPad. So im looking at the different models, comparing
specs, prices, seeing what I can afford, but there's a but,
all the while theres a siren going off in the back of my mind telling
me to hold off.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br />This
is probably because im quickly reacting to an impulse, the other
reason is that all of a sudden im getting the urge that i'm being
ripped off here. Now, if you look around mine and my wife's flat
it looks like a set from the Big Bang Theory, we both, me in
particular as i've mentioned love gadgety things as well as
you could say geeky things, nothing wrong with that. I actually owned
the very first iPhone, the one with the aluminum back which i still
think was gorgeous to this day, i then had the 3G, didn't get the 3GS
due to my contract skipping that generation but my wife had that one,
the i had the iPhone 4, and now we both own the 4S, which is awesome
by the way. But when the iPhone 5 was launched just a short
while ago i felt nothing, literally no enthusiasm for the thing, no
checking to see when my contract next ran out. Now im no Apple fan,
i've just always liked the iPods which is one of the more appealing
sides of the iPhone for me, but this is the first time where i've
really felt like when my current phone contract runs out I will not
be upgrading. I've felt like this is getting a bit silly, Apple have
now updated every product in its range in just seven months, i really
dont think even the most hardcore of Apple fans can keep up, and i
really felt like a lot of others would feel the same as i do,
apparently not, iPhone 5 is the fastest selling phone in history,
during a global recession, whaaaaa? Considering the amount of other
iPhone model sales to date, surely the majority of these sales aren't
people buying who currently have no iPhone or who have never had and
iPhone, so the only reason is that these sales are coming
from mostly people who already have iPhones. Where the hell are they
seeing the appeal? I'm not denying that the iPhone 5
is beautifully designed, or has amazing technology in its
belly, i'm just saying so has my iPhone 4S. Its clearly not the leap
we got from the first iPhone to the 3G, or even the 3G to the iPhone
4 for that matter. For me the iPhone 5 is better than my 4S, its just
not that much better.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br />What
i can gather from these observations is what seems like exponential
growth, that the leaps in the technology involved with Apple's iPhone
is getting less and less apparent with each iteration. This cannot be
the case, technology, not yet anyway, does not work like that, it
keeps getting better, and even if it doesn't seem so right
now, just look back at the technology we had just five or ten years
ago, its a vast improvement over what was available just
that short time ago. The other reason is maybe now that Apple have
sadly lost Steve Jobs they are too frightened to take too big a leap
forward, to be pioneering and different and beyond innovative
but this is what Apple represents, surely they aren't just 'giving
the consumers exactly what they want', cant be, i've always been
under the impression that Apple 'shows the consumers what they want',
so it cant be that reason either.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="line-height: 0.58cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br />So
here's the conclusion I've come to. And here's why i think
i'm being ripped off. The iPad mini looks great, and although apple
claims 'there's less of it, but no less to it', upon further
inspection this doesn't seem to be the case at all. At this point
I've not even mentioned that alongside the announcement of the iPad
mini Apple also announced a fourth generation iPad (and
this is only two and a half years after the launch of the original
iPad), but you may want to re-read through my last paragraph and just
replace the word iPhone with iPad because i'm not going through that
rant again. But, this new iPad has some new features, as well as
existing ones, which i'd expect the iPad mini to come with but
doesn't. The main points here are that the new iPad mini does not
come with the new iPad processor in it, in fact im
pretty sure it doesn't even have the 3rd gen's iPad processor in it
and it does not come with Apple's now famous retina display, again im
pretty certain its screen is, if not almost identical again to the
iPad 2, now 2 generations old. Quote from Forbes "Google’s
Nexus 7 Android tablet has 1280 x 800 resolution in a 7” screen.
Notably, the Nexus 7 display packs in 216 PPI (pixels-per-inch)
compared to the iPad Mini’s 163 PPI. I find it baffling that Apple
is aggressively pushing their Retina technology (and rightly so),
while simultaneously producing what is clearly an inferior display
experience for their iPad mini. Newcomers to the iPad will not be
impressed, and existing iPad owners will be underwhelmed should they
choose to purchase the iPad Mini as a second device.". Heres
where i begin to feel as though i'm being ripped off. Apple have no
problem demonstrating the fact that they revise their products every
six months now and i'm beginning to get the feeling that they
are DELIBERATELY holding back on the technology in their
products intentionally planning on a better version in six months
time, how is that fair? The reason i loved the Playstation 3 when it
was first released, and the reason why i picked mine up at a midnight
launch, is despite the high price tag at the time, I actually thought
I was getting good value for money, it really seemed as though Sony
had put together the best available technology they could at that
time and it showed. I get the sense that Apple are blatantly
demonstrating the stupidity of today's consumers, I haven't a leg to
stand on then it seems, I have no problems with the advancement
of technology but i read somewhere once that technology
doubles in advancement around every eighteen months or
so, apparently Apple have cut that down to a third? I dont
think so. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br />So
what do i do? Clearly consumers are stupid, and if they are willing
to pay out for minor adjustments at best, every six months,
I cant blame Apple for wanting to take their money. But what do i do?
I still want an iPad mini, so do i buy one when they are released so
I have the new latest and greatest thing, or do i wait for six months
for the iPad miniS or mini2 or do i wait till 2014 for the next one,
when eventually i know Apple will include the better processor and a
Retina display. Right now my argument is pretty clear, and i cant
really argue with myself now can I? This would no doubt be a major
purchase for me considering the price, so I want it to be perfect and
not be outdated in just half a year, so I'm sorry Apple, looks like
i've talked myself out of this one this time and for now, my money
stays with me.<br /><br /><br />Just thought I'd also share these articles
with you, they dont 'back-up' my argument here, but are along the
same lines as where i am coming from with it;</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2012/10/23/5-reasons-you-shouldnt-buy-an-ipad-mini/"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2012/10/23/5-reasons-you-shouldnt-buy-an-ipad-mini/</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.zdnet.com/an-ipad-mini-and-a-new-ipad-nice-try-apple-see-you-in-two-years-or-more-7000006259/"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">http://www.zdnet.com/an-ipad-mini-and-a-new-ipad-nice-try-apple-see-you-in-two-years-or-more-7000006259/</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apples-ipad-mini-should-you-buy-it-or-not/2012/10/24/bcb0076c-1deb-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_story_1.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apples-ipad-mini-should-you-buy-it-or-not/2012/10/24/bcb0076c-1deb-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_story_1.html</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Ahh
the pangs of indecision. Lastly I would also like to note that my
decision is not yet final, you probably all know by now that naything
could change when I get my mits on one for the first time.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122667665661216595.post-54285195632486994122012-10-20T08:01:00.001-07:002012-10-20T08:01:36.882-07:00Losing my pasion for gaming?For a good while now I havn't played games as much as I used to, but I dont think I havn't played them as much as I of liked to, no, I dont think that is the reason. I dont know wether it has primarily been the events of the last 3years or so that have directly or indirectly affected my urge to sit down and play a game start to finish or wether it is ust the case that I have just gradually become interested in spending my valuable time doing other things, because lets face it, a video game, new or old, will take up a good deal of ones time, just to play from start to finish without worrying about tropies or achievments or whatever meaningless crap that one struggles so hard to get even though, at least in my opinion, the 'getting' of these things always seem cheap and meaningless.<br />
<br />
I think it is a mixture of a few different things. Yes, i believe the last few years have had a major influence on me not playing video games as often or for as long. I havn't hardly had the time to sit down and play again, nevermind the opportunity to relax and enjoy one, and as time has gone on and these events have sorted themselves out, things have settled down and started to become easier I havn't found myself phasing back into a routine of sitting for possible a few hours a day, if not every other day, and enjoying a game. The workload involved with being on the Game Art Design course clearly has an influence on how much spare time you have to do other things but i think its a case as I've mentioned before, that there is eventually a clear difference between enjoying playing games and enjoying making them, and sometimes this is apparent in fellow students which one they are.<br />
<br />
So what I have done in my spare time? Well i must say that for a good while now I have bought way more movies than I have games and watching a good movie is still something i thoroughly enjoy. We've just bought ourselves a new Samsung 37" LED 3D HDTV and blu-rays just look absolutely stunning on it. I actually counted how many blu-ray movies we have today and it currently stands at 194, not a bad number? I think a major influence on this shift between movies and gaming has just been how unbelievably exhausted I've been. When you've put every last ounce of energy you have into your daily activities, even picking up a controller and mashing away at buttons just seems like to much of an effort, so to sit down and watch a movie is a nice way to rewind and relax before bed.<br /><br />The sad thing is that the events of the last few years have obviously had quite an averse affect on me and unfortunately i have lost my enthusiasm for a lot of things. Despite this i still enjoy art, and the satisfaction it can give when your hard work and dedication is clearly demonstrated in your work. Frustratingly i do want to play games, i remember how much I enjoyed them, but that is when i was at school with much less responsibilities, its hard to justify using your time in this way but as things, finger crossed, continue to settle down i hope my passion for gaming will return.Joe Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13543963837147451088noreply@blogger.com0