Week 4 Review:

Ohhhhh its all going so well.  Things are coming together.  The Formative went well for the group so I'm happy with that.  No one is worried about any of the work load and we are SO ready to play about with more detailed bits and bobs such lighting the houses which will probably be a team effort.  I know a little bit about lighting but I know that Alec and Si do too :)

The Imperial War Museum aka Bedlam and the Inmates was very interesting along with the trip to the design Museum which I have posted up.  Leant a lot there with a lot of sketching going on left right and center!! I'm really enjoying this project so far and I hope that Rendering comes and goes just as smoothly!

Unfortunately  for me there was a major bummer at the Games fair mind you - Blitz and Splash Damage (Case Study) were no where to be seen which kinda upset me a bit.  Missed them by a day - BLAST! Nevermind - I got in touch with a friend in Blitz (an animator called Nick Rodgers) and he's helping me out there and said that he could help with any comments on any work that I do (what a NICE guy!!!!) Splash Damage I'm still yet to hear back from but I understand that they are very busy as most companies would have projects on.

4th Week Review summed up... :D Loving it, team project and course!!

Contextual Studies

Today we had contextual studies with Mike Hirsh. We looked at a vairety of different styles of environments and Mike said that he would hopefully come back with some more that will aid our work. Our group explained that we were looking at tudor housing and docks with an eerie look to it. Heres a few sites which need to be looked at in the near future... possibly later today.

http://ravensbourne.wordpress.com/
http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/


I also booked some time with Alex Hulse however he didn't show up and therefore I e-mailed him again (this was the method of contact) and we will hopefully sort this problem out very soon.
Alex came down .... 5 minutes of his time was all I needed and I got it. He was waiting for his washing machine to get delivered... that busy busy man!

Euro Gamer - Games Expo - Career Fair

First things first - it was PACKED.  Could hardly move in there as it was so packed and queing to play Cod World at War, the latest Resident Evil and Gears of War 2... all of which were mind blowing!!  I entered a tournement - to win £500 which I didn't actually know at the time - playing Far Cry 2 which was interesting as 1. Never played it before and 2. It was on Xbox 360 and I've never played on one of them either.  I made do and ended up winning majority of warm up rounds, Won the first Live game 20 kills for about 6 deaths.... after a few more games.... went out in the Semi Finals.  Good effort I think.  Gamer through and through.

Whilst others were playing, Simon and I noticed that many of the walls on buildings look like they have a high amount of modeling detail in but its actually the texture quality!  Up close to a wall you could see that it was all just a painted texture - It looked good so I wouldn't ever complain and these guys clearly know what they are doing.  It was probably due to the shear massively outstounding amount of detail involved in the map before hitting the horizon line.  Having that amount of models in view - you'd think would be influence any inferior console.  This really was the Xbox and PS3 working to its limits ... or was it?!

I managed to speak to a number of different companies involving placements, CVs and Portfolios and they really helped me.  Rebellion were very helpful and seemed like great guys to talk to - very approachable.  Lionshead said for me to e-mail them so I may drop them an e-mail another day with a CV and Portfolio.  Saw Fable2 in all its Glory at this stand and had a little play.

All in all a really successful day down Brick Lane at the Games Festival.  Loved every minute even if I don't get paid to play games unlike the guys I went out to... yet.

Heres the site... http://www.gamesindustry.biz/ 

Same time next year then?

Formative Assessment Feedback

"Can I just say I'm loving the way your Blog is coming together... just looking over it all it looks great! Team Authentic Rocks!!"

Jared Taylor 2008 - In not so many words

We had the formative assessment today in our groups with Jared Taylor.  Generally he was happy with the way that we were working together as a team and all knowing our individual roles.  There wasn't too many moans and groans at each other - most likely as we were all keen on the project since day one and have all been eager to learn new techniques and try new things...

Eg.

Tom - nCloth, building Massive and not so massive boats and storyboarding.

Simon - Modeling Tudor Housing, cannons and all things that people couldn't even dream of as well as a bit of Vfx.

Alec - Bend deformers on HOUSES, storyboards, coming up with insane ideas that spark ideas off in the group.

Dan (Myself) - Playing with Vfx to the max, Clouds, Ocean Planes, Fog, Depth of Field and 3D Fluids and particles for the first time.

Overall I believe that each one of us took a few things away from the Formative Assessment that will aid us as individual workers.  Personally I took away a bit of confidence in my team mates that they are all so on the ball knowing exactly whats going on all the time.  I wasn't confident that they were checking the Blog as often as Simon and I but now I know they are it sets my mind at ease.  I also learnt that I don't need to do 5 jobs at once - I need to prioritize moreso about whats needed here and now.  The guys also said that they were happy working with me and my technical skills were good (eg Vfx). I only hope I can get better.  Jared said that I was a good contributer and that I was well structured.

My formative assessment ended up with me getting pretty good marks all round.  I was happy with that as these marks allow me to improve my work.  If I got all excellents then I would have no where to aspire to... No challenge to push me on with my work.  This way I have something to aim for!!

Thats all I can remember for now... until I get back the sheet Jared is copying for our Assessment.  Until then....

Sketch Book - Imperial War Museum

Sketchbook work (obviously) I did whilst at the Imperial War Museum. People really NEVER stand still do they. Ah. Nevermind though hey. Was WELL worth going to see how these people interacted looking around the different environment and how the children wanted to touch and feel the objects just for a better understanding... surely we all do. Some objects just scream for us to touch them even though it's going to be Goo-ey or yucky... deep down we all have that innate instict to reach out and touch what we don't understand.

Imperial War Museum & Design Museum - London

The Imperial War Museum bursting with life

Jared Taylor and Dan Dalli met us up in London for some culture filled exhibition visits to the Imperial War Museum (Elephant and Castle) and the Design Museum (London Bridge Tube - but closer to Tower Bridge). At the Imperial War Museum we took the opportunity to sketch people observing their surroundings, people working, people being taken in a tour group and young children - as it was half term there were plenty - and how they and their parents interacted with one another while looking around the museum. As well as looking at all this I had a good look around the exhibits myself and found some useful textures in the 'Trench' experience part of the museum. Found that really nice to look around with some great imagery involved. Was very enjoyable.

  

  

I took the opportunity to gather these textures while at the Imperial War Museum.  Very interesting ones I think you'd agree.  I took three of these in the 'Trench' experience which I loved.  The atmosphere and style this was done was brilliant.  After being taught by Dan Dalli (lifedrawing) I knew it was very important to be observant... and I was!  I didn't draw anything as I took my time taking it in.

Thought this boat could be handy for reference in our Docks.  Got other angles of it too but thats not really necessary for the Blog so I'll keep it simple :)

 

 

Here's a few more quick snaps I got while on the way to the Design Museum .  A beautiful day with the Thames relatively calm and a few clouds in the sky - perfect for reference yet again!!

The Design Museum itself I found really interesting. The exhibit which was being displayed was by Alan Aldridge.  Unfortunately there were no photographs allowed to be taken inside.  I really loved some of his Graphic work he has done. So impressive and so interesting. Original thought was my God how much time did this guy have on his hands. Then I settled on the idea that it was just very impressive. After reading a fair bit and attempting to take in all the work he'd done - including very impressive story boards - I had to leave unfortunately to go to work but while on the way to the Tube Station I managed to get a few snaps to help us out with our environment project (I hope).

Heres the website of Alan Aldridge incase anyone else is interested:

http://www.alanaldridge.net/

Here is just a taster of some of Alan Aldridge's work he's done:

I really love these story boards that Alan has done. Such high detail and he really catches the emotion and the characters expression in these. I've only included two of them as I think they speak for themself really. As I said his storyboards are really inspiring me to work harder on our current project!! Excellent work Alan!!

Just thinking about environments makes me look at these and smile. A soldier at war. Fighting through the debris and bullets to make it to the enemy. The atmosphere really exciting here with what looks like an explosion going off infront of him with an orangey glow and the fog of war surrounding him as things are being set alight and exploding. The image on the right is just hilarious but still as terrifying. Mr Fantastic there is on the run and it would appear that all the houses are against him and his acomplice. The houses are personified to resemble evil characters. Ahhh the beauty of animation...

Two words "Don't Mess"

Ok so this guy doesn't have too much to do with what we are doing but I just love this character. There was a friendly version but I don't know why... I just prefer this one. A little bit hard a little bit rough... Would not want to mess with this bear down a dark alley.

3rd Week Review

So the end of the third week came and passed way too quickly.  We walked away on Friday after a not-so-worth-it lecture about the history of paintings and didn't really have any plans for the weekend.  We spoke about a variety of different things which we need to acomplish and work on however we didn't really settle on any tasks specifically.  For this reason I feel that team Authentic didn't really achieve its full potential in those couple of days.  The week itself was fairly successful in that we managed to uncover a problem or two that we have come accross however we have not yet seen to these problems and got around them - they are work in progress to say the least.  One such problem is that of the Ocean Shader being scaled without losing the quality of the ocean which is happening at the moment.  After trying for a fair hour or so playing about with setting of the Shader itself I acomplished NOTHING and therefore have asked for technical help from Alex Hulse however still await a reply from him.  Week overall was an eye opener for us and generally made me realise this won't be such an easy task to complete as we originally first thought.

Clouds, Puppys and all things fluffy

Obviously too dark in some of these images... I thought lighting it properly would help here but it didn't really. The density of the clouds were just too great and this really shows in these.

"As if your looking through a knitted jumper."

Been experimenting with the clouds and the fog in this batch of pictures. For the FOG I used a Ramp to effect the colours and density. Clouds are going to take more work unless I use it as a set background. Have still got the problem with the Ocean Shader not expanding the way I would have liked however I am awaiting a reply from Alex Hulse (Technical Tutor) to see if he can help. If not I'll have to whip up some sort of reserve. Also I found (while creating the Ocean) bouency may have a large factor on our work - we may have to animate each boat in the seat as if they are floating and set it to repeat or something as it would appear the Ocean plane has been set too low....

I think the images look relatively sucessful however it isn't exactly the style I was going for. The Fog I think we can do that quite easily now however the clouds and the water continue to worry me. Anway... must crack on!

Experimentation is the key to success.