Just before Christmas my course had a review of progress, to check on how people where doing and to give feedback. After my review on visual design I decided to redo some of my first final pieces so they where of a better standard and to help me refine my techniques. Week One finial, one point perspective- the canal Week 17 revised finial Looking back on my improvement I can see how I've learnt more then better technique and perspective but I've also learnt better framing and composition. the horizon line is in the right place and it's well drawn. I all ways feel more confident in my work when redo a piece and see improvements because of how critical I am of my drawings and artwork. Week two, two point perspective- archway finial. Week 17 revised finial Again with this revised finial I feel the composition and framing are what make the the image much stronger however in this image I also feel the detail, contrast and how I've put more contrast and detail into the focal point, give it atmosphere. I think this helps lead the viewer into the subject rather then look over the whole image like in my first attempt. However I also feel my perspective and straight line rending is much better too.
Do I get a Gold sticker now?
I'm pleased with my more simple and technical and artist improvements in these images however at the same time I feel like I have a long way to go before I really master these techniques as fundamental skills. because of this my goal is to draw more city scenes in the future and re visit at least 4 final images per term, to help me both improve the imagery and my fundamental skills. All pencil images are my own work draw from life and in situate. gold star https://schoolmeritstickers.com/buy/333-gold-star-sticker/
Even now, there are still issues with equality, whether
these be sexist or racist or homophobic. I have been personally affected by
sexism, especially growing up.
My mother has been a feminist for all of her life, even
refusing to take the title of matron as male staff cannot earn it. She named me
Freddy, like a favourite character from her favourite film, like one of her
great granddads a name that she’d always loved. A joke with her sister soon
turned into a drunk debate on how sexist names are, long story short, they
jested about giving a girl a boy’s name.
This would be the fellow
Freddy, from room with a view
For this trivial decision, half based on a merry jest and
half on a good point, I used to get bullied. I gained
a very masculine persona in youth, one that many mothers where averse to, as
though their child could catch my personality.
Obviously gender identity and sexism has become a very
personal thing, why was it so indecent for a woman to have a name of a man?
Nowadays things are a lot better, you wouldn't bat an eyelid at my name any
more, but it wasn't as long ago as you’d think. For instance the Bechtel
Test, easy to read further on here: http://bechdeltest.com/.
This is a test that looks at how women are shown in films. To pass the Bechtel
test the film must only fill three criteria:
Easy right?
In 2013 37% of films published didn’t pass the Bechtel test, 7%
failed out right*. This is sad, the fact is that women are being shown to have
no interests other than men around them. This is what we show our children. While
that might be called taking it too far these films include Disney and Pixar
films which are aimed at children. A famous example being Star Wars, one of the
first three failing outright. This is such a fantastic and well thought out
presentation on how movies may need to change. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueOqYebVhtc
I love how the video
brings up a valuable fact that in the Wizard of Oz Dorothy, a girl, holds
importance and leadership over other people. How? By making friends, by making
clever choices and by avoiding battles. The film teaches our children that the
best way to approve our goals is by making friends and good decisions. Many
years later a film called Star Wars arises, however this time the boy has to
fight all of the battles, and he only gets the girl at the end.
Currently 2013 is one of the best scores for a year on the Bechtel
test things are getting better a prime example being the hunger games; Katniss
is a strong level headed leader who pushes though awful circumstance and reacts
to it, she grieves the death, she scared by the events.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3umXU_qWcthis is another fantastic video on how modern day sexism is often overlooked because it’s become in grained into us, both men and women. It’s not a rant against men, it’s a speech on how feminism is viewed badly in many other cultures. My favourite part being where she’s a happy African feminist who wears lip-gloss and high heels for herself and not for men. Truly eye opening.
However do we really send the worst message to the girls or
to the boys?
To the girls more and more we say, be feisty or super
feminine or manly but it’s you who will choose. Choose to be a house wife,
choose to be a mother but know that the choice is important, The message is
empower yourself.
To the boys we say, you were born strong, you have to be in
charge, you save the day, go out and be muscly while jumping 5 foot and
punching walls and get a girl and do all the things. The message is fit in this
mold.
So last week was a deadline for a fully modelled and textured house. As someone quite new to modelling it was a fairly daunting task even with such a generous deadline of 4 weeks. But I really feel like all things considered I did the best I could do and put a lot of time and effort into the work. I feel my biggest achievement was in the modelling process, it felt far more fluid than before and I really started to grasp the controls. I'm really happy with my progress and feel enthused to apply my new skills. I've started to use cleaner geometry and troubleshoot my problems on Max, which are both really useful skills in my tool box to have.
However another thing I've grasped is using tiled textures, which gave me a better understanding of how unique maps work too. While I don't think my textures where 100% successful, I felt that my knowledge of the software has came along way in the 7 weeks I've been using it. I also seem to understand how multi-sub objects and ID’s work. It seemed to click by doing it wrong a few time but once I got it, I found myself helping people as I was able to see the error or solution. That felt great because a lot of work and self motivation went into the model, roughly 75 hours of it. I also really enjoyed the unwrap because I learnt a lot about making it easier and how the unique and tiled textures work. Now I understand Max better I feel very motivated for my next project.
However I wasn't happy with my finished house, my house looks very disjointed, this is from the unique map, because the lighting is all a little different and the colours are a different cast, which I didn't have time to effectively sort out. The UV unwrap I did meant I couldn't get a lot of detail, it was sacrificed because I was learning how things worked and if I could go back a lot of my house would be tiled and I would probably choose an easier building too.
I think I bit off more than I could chew by choosing something where not only would I need unique mapped walls, but one with a lot of scaffolding I had to edit out to get textures. I would say while it gave me a challenge for my level of knowledge for Photoshop; It did only just covered my needs.
However I also feel I learnt a lot from these mistakes, like what ideal images for texturing look like; and for the future, what I need to take images of for more successful textures. Most of all I learnt how to fill the gaps.
I've become more aware of the creative decisions, like deleting the back of the windows, both to save tries and because none would see the back faces.
Another useful thought was using Google satellite to see the roof plan, just to give me idea of where the faces meet and how they should meet up, because I couldn't see the roof at all. I think that really helped because without it, my roof my not match the layout of the building at all and look unrealistic. Obviously I didn't trace or use the reference satellite image to texture my roof it was just an idea of how it could look on my model. But if I needed to model a specific building down to a tee and couldn't see the roof at all, I'd'd know a way to get around that issue.
The part of the project I really needed to learn was time management, I used every hour of lab time I could, often staying till lock up and I don’t want to do that again unless it’s necessary because it took a toll on my health. With the huge amount of time I had I really could have timetabled both my time in labs and my progress better. Luckily I've learnt this now, so I intend on using at least two evening and days a week per week in the labs using my time wisely and efficiently. This would both help my learning and progress, as well as feeling it's ok to take a break on nights off 3D work.
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.
