So I started the 3D modelling with very little idea on what I was doing. there's something very demoralising about using new software in high pressure environments, with the bonus that you don't understand a word of what people are trying to tell you and especially when your results look very immature and flawed. There's something soul crushing about glancing at the person next to you to see that, although they started at the same time as you, they have both finished and made it five times better. None said it was going to be easy, but I've struggled to get to grips with the program. luckily I'm determined and shameless, so showing people my wonky cylinder and asking, how do I do the thing? Has become like a greeting, personally I'm hoping it will be an advantage, I will know every single thing that 3ds Max can do wrong and solve it. I have now officially started my journey as... The Max Whisperer. So it started with a wonky cylinder and I managed to pull through and finish the darlek, I learnt a lot from it in how to make the shapes and easier ways of modelling so my next task was a dust bin and learning texturing. I'll be honest I didn't understand it much and the idea of mapping didn't click this time. I that's why it's called learning, and I have a lot to learn.
So who else was on that proverbial playing field I mentioned. Well there is one other contender… 1947 Games on a screen are released.
1947: Cathode ray tube amusement device is developed with military
implication in mind however the small game that was demonstrated to show its
use was possibly the first person shooter ever made. The idea is to line up the
tube, aim for the “plane” and shoot it down.
1947-58 Chess is a mathematical program designed to attempt
games of chess, however it unfortunately failed at playing complex games and
could only work out scenarios for mate in two.
1958: Tennis for two is a U.S demo game to show the public the
contemporary and exciting technology, clearly it’s a massive success as not
only did it spark excitement in the otherwise drab lab. But it was pathing the
way forward for a computer or, for consoles to be built purely to play a simple
interactive game.
A demo of Tennis for two:
1966: Odyssey is in the making, the idea is simple, the task
at hand difficult. Ralph Baer Takes on the task of
developing a video game, a game that is able to be shown on the television. In 1972
the first home console is released the final prototype “brown box” becomes the
Magnavox Odyssey.
1971: Computer Space is released after a game called Galaxy
Game, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney come in second with a new coin
operated gaming system.
The battle between the arcade format and console format has
begun. Money once again fuels the fires or development.
1972: Atari pong is out and about as the team of Nolan
Bushnell and Ted Dabney continue developing arcade style games, this
time taken from the format of tennis for two or the later developed pong Dec.
1973: Graphics tablets become viable and a more formal
digital art world emerges. Along with lots of new technology that also becomes
readily available at home, printers and Ethernet cables become marketable.
1973: New technology and growth in possibilities arrive making
the launch of Maze wars possible, computers are reasonably sized now and Ethernet
cables can connect computers so gamers can play against each other on separate machines.
1975: Atria release a pong at home game to keep up with
popular demand, even paying licensing fees to Magnavox to break into the home
market.
1977: The Atari 2600 sweeps the market a console capable of
playing many different games that were preinstalled. In many way the shear
popularity of pong allowed Atria to wipe out competitors, it didn't have a good
plot or graphics or even really out do its competitors in pushing boundaries.
Pong had novelty and most importantly, people who would pay for it again and
again.
Why?
Personally I think the competitive side of pong allowed
people to have fun with friends while doing something new; but just the sweet
aftertaste of being better at something then your mate made the money roll
into the slot and straight into Atari’s pocket.
1977: Spaced Invaders launches, there's a lot of controversy over weather Atria teamed up with oversea companies to introduce them to the market or made space invaders themselves. No matter which it was in 1977 the overseas producers are
coming to town.
Here I shall give my rendition of the 130 year development of space invaders and also computers in general.
Lets us begin in 1805...1805: the jacquard loom is build and the first program is running, although a simple weaving system, the idea of a system has been invented. The system is in place and the programs are sure to follow. 1849: Charles Babbage and the difference engine. The desire to have perfect sums, untainted by human error becomes the driving force for the difference engine. The engine itself merely works out complex sums but mechanically. The idea and the plans are entirely feasible and the engine does in fact work perfectly creating a hard and ink copy of an answer. But the passion and creation fall upon two minds… one I feel ignored from the history books sometimes, one Ada Lovelace. Lovelace was Britain’s first true programmer, a young Victorian lady and the only legitimate child of Lord Bryon. However most importantly the second brain behind the engine, Lovelace would spend a lot of time with Babbage working with and coding complex sums into the engine many of her mathematical inputs would have made the machine work. Truly a noteworthy woman.
Demo of a working Difference engine:
1939: The Audio oscillator is born into the world with Hewlett Packard as the metaphorical womb. However I believe this massive gap in development is Due to lack of financial need and lack of conflict. Without war and money there’s no room for progress in an industrial world, life becomes about working and physical growth rather than technology and advancements 1939: The world is at war and computers are seen as a potential weapon, technology is reinvested in. 1941: Zuse is created in Germany and z3 becomes the world’s first programmable computer. 1943: With the help of Polish Intel to Bletchy Park, a few British women finally crack enigma code after months of hard methodical labour using a total of 10 of the UK’s Colossus mark II machines. 1946: Finance takes over as the driving force for computers and programmable machines, up until at least 1965. Finance and business application are almost the sole investors in the technology of computers. In a way we know this, we know who started to make tech for profit so who else was on the playing field?
tiers, Late at night I toss and I turn And I dream of what I need.
I need a career.
My name is Freddy Canton, a just about still 19 year old student studying Game Art Design at DMU (or De Montfort University) and it would seem as though my journey through boot camp and my ascension to the cintiq labs has begun. So let me introduce myself by taking you down memory lane...
November 1999, the millennium bug was a real concern, computers were still not in every home, my copy of land before time was on VHS and game boy colours had just come out.
A young girl of six is walking around with her mother looking at possible birthday presents; when she spies Pokémon red version in the window of a toy shop. It was the perfect gift and the start to my passion
and training as a game artist. I remember scrawling until I started drawing so I
could imitate these strange new creatures. I vividly remember creating
my own and dreaming that one day maybe I could make games, maybe I could design
things for them… what if I could design Pokémon?
Of course the idea of working in Game Freak was once Farfetch'd,
but after all this time, James Turner, a British graphic designer, currently
works at Game Freak. In 2010, my dreams started to feel less distance as he
became the first Western person to design Pokémon.
And now, in 2013, I’ve started the next stepping stone across
the ocean that is my future. I've hopped onto the Game Art Degree and I'm jumping, falling, reattempting and succeeding crossing from stone to stone.
So this is what my blog will be about, my quirky yet bountiful
journey through Game Art Design at DMU.
