WARNING: do not read if you are already depressed.

I guess I'm writing this just to help me really. Not to preach or depress or patronise or for sympathy, just my thoughts on a few things spilling on to the page.....

I had recently had a number of Revelations in terms of my work and felt like I was making progress. Some things had started to click and I was just about hitting my stride upon returning from the summer break. I felt optimistic about my future on the course and about how I was developing. But then thing's can so easily change. I have recently been derailed by a few personal problems. It amazes me, the contrast between how I was feeling just a few months ago to how I have been feeling recently and how quickly all this has happened. Its not the first time something like this has happened, I'm sure it will not be the last and of course I am not the only person who has problems everyone does, and will in their life, it's just hard sometimes to get your head around why these things happen and the timing of them. I know its not the end of the world and I am slowly but surely getting back to a level playing field and I guess soon all will be well.....life goes on, it's just sometimes it's not always as you envisioned it. I guess whether that is a positive or a negative is down to the person.

But anyway that's enough of that. Its almost christmas for crying out loud, have a good one and a happy new year.....

Some more photoshop work floating about on my pc. Below is a quick painting I produced for the war of the worlds project. When I was happy with with my design I put it in a scene just to get an idea how it might look.

This is completely from my brain box. no reference images or concepts just started painting so there are problems but was just an experiment in using some different tools and techniques in photoshop.

This was done as part of the interesting character project. I actually quite like this and think I captured what I set out to capture. I think the picture has character.

plastercine is fun!!

We have recently been making models from various materials as part of the visual design module of the course. I hadn't done any actual physical sculpture for years. I have to say I really enjoyed it.

The first thing I modeled was a torso. Was just getting used to using the Plasticine really and had recently been looking at anatomy so thought I would bring those two factors together in this little experiment of mine.the next project was to model an interesting character. My sculpture is not an exact replica of the person I used, more loosely based on them and exaggerated.Technically this was the first sculpting project. We had to produce a physical model of a war of the worlds inspired tripod/vehicle. I had made a model but I didn't feel it was faith full to the designs I had produced so I revisited the project and produced this model which was a lot closer to what I had drawn.Just recently I decided to do a sculpture of myself just because I'm enjoying the Plasticine modelling and thought it was quite fitting with the ongoing game production self portrait project.

A rival for the statue of david? probably not....

This is my higher poly self portrait model. I'm still refining the shape but I surprised myself really in the sense that I think its fairly representative of me. Although there are still some issues and there probably always will be when working with a program like max that has a mind of its own, I have noticed improvements in my modelling just recently and hopefully will continue to.

Here is my lower poly self portrait. It's still a work in progress but I think its shaping up OK. I quite enjoyed the making of both the lower and higher poly models and was surprised I didn't have as many problems as I had anticipated.

3d work

This is my vehicle project. The lower image is with the my initial textures, I then stumbled across a tutorial for car paint materials so thought I would give it a go on the wheel arches. It doesn't come across that well in the pictures but was just a bit of an experiment really.

This is my environment project. Quite happy with the model. The textures where just really to see how things where looking and I will be re-texturing some parts , if not the whole thing.

some adjustments

I continued to work into this previously finished picture and i think although the changes are only subtle it's and improvement.Again after looking at my previously finished interior i tried to give it a bit more atmosphere and character

My own worst critic!

I noticed something about myself the other day. I tend to "finish" a piece of work and feel happy with it at the time but upon viewing with fresh eyes I then notice obvious errors, things that can be improved upon and things I just blatantly hate about it. Its amazing how you see things differently after taking a break from them....

I now employ this as part of my working practice. I used to despise revisiting old work but now realise that more often than not it is required in order to do the best you possibly can.

What I've been up to!

The first project was to produce a number of pictures of urban environments mainly focusing on a single point of perspective.


Following a trek around bradgate park we were asked to produce some images. The next project was an interior/bar. The latest project was to design a vehicle/tripod influenced by the war of the worlds.

Some "doodles" using photoshop. Some took slightly longer than others but all just really brain farts, pardon the expression, that just fell out in a few minutes......

I must, I must, I must improve my......Photoshop?

So after watching the presentations I became increasingly more appalled at the quality of my photoshop "skills".

As I watched the many superior examples I began to see where I have been going wrong so I sat down and tried to implement what I had taken in from watching and the result is below......

Though its still not quite up to standard, it is easily the best photoshop work I have done and hopefully marks a turning point in my digital painting progression. There are some parts I like others I don't but I will endeavour to keep practicising and hopefully improve further more now it seems to have "clicked" at least a little.

On a side note this development couldn't have come at a better time, he says sarcastically. It's typical of me that the penny finally drops the day after final submissions for work, still better late than never, damn it!!!!!

Week 24! the final stage.

So here it is my last formal blog and its the one that is causing the most problems. I don't think there is a lot i would have changed i think the course has moved at a good pace and that the responsibility is on me really to now develop what has been taught so far.

As for constructive feedback i think the changes such as sculpting and looking at more traditional art sound very positive and any other additional subject areas such as film are of course a bonus and would be a great addition to this opportunity.

But for now thanks for reading.....

Week 23! I just don't know what to do with myself.

zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz

Week 22! ahem! err, yes GDC is nearly upon us!?!?

ok.... i apologise, so im running a little late and GDC has passed me by but i had a bit late so i have had a bit of a peruse of the ol' youtube and found some GDC videos that were fairly interesting.

Week 21! Destiny's powerful hand has made the bed of my future, and it's up to me to lie in it.

So my first "year", and i use the term loosely as it has flown by, is coming to an end and its time to look back and assess how things have gone so far.

Generally I think things have gone OK. I feel there is a lot of room for improvement and I intend to keep grafting over the summer period and return in year 2, providing I'm allowed of course, at a level I would feel much happier. I think returning to education has been a bit of a culture shock and it has taken some getting used to but it is definitely a change for the better.

The biggest change I have noticed is in my drawing capabilities, I find myself approaching a scene in a much more methodical way, my thought processes have changed, as well as my technical capabilities. I have learnt new techniques and styles and have been able to see the results of these changes clearly by looking at sketch books past and present.

Area's I would like to focus on are digital painting which was a new medium to me at the start of the course. I can see improvements from when I first started but again this is an area I will be focusing on developing along with the bane of my existence 3ds max. 3ds max is much like walking a tight rope, all it takes is one little error and you're done for, at least that how it seemed to me. Again its not all bad I have definitely progressed from the start of the year and hop to continue to progress with all the practice I can get.

What i would like to gain from the course is the knowledge and know how to move into a field which interests me and with the structure and content of the course I think if I knuckle down and continue to develop the skills i have already learnt along with what is still to come the doors to a multitude of different and exciting careers will be opened.

Week 20! Manny, don't squash their creativity.

Creativity is really a difficult word to define. It can manifest itself as a novel solution to a problem, or it could be an ingenious and groundbreaking development, but for a word that covers such a vast array of meaning, it ain't half hard to describe!!!

I suppose creativity is all around us really. Every thing we see and use on a daily basis is a result of one, or several persons "creativeness", some more striking and apparent than others. I suppose the most obvious forms of creativity are things such as music, art etc. but it can also appear in the form of problem solving.

With this in mind it is possible that in the realm of game design creativity may not be hindered by technical restraints but may in fact be the result. Particularly in the earlier days of gaming when the consoles were not quite capable of delivering the grandiose vision that the designers had hoped.

I believe creativity is abundant in games. Its always going to be required and while it may not always be strikingly obvious, creating a game is too much of a creative process for it not be in there somewhere, in some shape or form from the graphics style, a use of sound or a innovative control method

Leading on to a company who at the moment are demonstrating a creative approach to gaming, I'm talking of course of Nintendo and the Wii along with its long list of games which utilise the innovative control method and implement it in new and creative ways. Though some view it as a gimmick it is undeniably the product of creative thinking and as a result a whole host of games developers have got the ol' creative juices flowing trying to cash in... i mean, come up with new ways of using the unique capabilities and opportunities the Wii offers.

As a budding designer myself I'm still trying to get back that creative spark that after several years working for an insurance company was rapidly drained from within me, along with this there is another common problem with creativity that you inadvertently end up with a rehash of already existing ideas. I hope that once I do retrieve said spark I will be able to produce some fresh and exiting work that will hopefully become lodged in future game art students minds and in turn will be rehashed by them in a substandard manner.

Week 19! He also wants video games banned because he believes that they're destroying education... come on Dick, it's the only education we got.

So the question that has been troubling man since the dawn of time....



Artist trained as modeller?



or,



modeler trained to be an artist?



it is a conundrum.

I think there are arguments for both. I suppose though it really comes down to the needs of the employer. A skilled programmer requires little technical training, and as a result can start work almost immediately however there is the likelihood they may become a one dimensional tool user. On the other hand a creative candidate can bring fresh, new ideas to the table but may also require extensive training to get up to speed on industry standard software.

It appears to me, in particular on my course, that the two are not mutually exclusive. Creative, artistic people are being taught to tools of the trade in order to have all bases covered as it were. This in my opinion is a good approach and from what I understand about the feedback on the course from the industry this has been recognised. As a result of this approach a more rounded, fully formed game artist is being produced with a strong artistic understanding as well a knowledge of industry standard software.

Week 18!

Whether it be voice acting, soundtrack or sound FX, Sound is an imperative part of games. It can provide important cues to the player as to how they should be feeling, what is happening and provide essential narrative clues.

Although this is similair to other media types the added level of interactivity of games can mean that playing a game with the sound off could result in the player missing sonic cues, points etc.

Sound helps to provide real moments and can, for some, spark vivid memories of games gone by.
A few that spring to mind are the discovery of a secret in the original tomb raider, sends a shiver down my spine even now, or the sudden introduction of godsmack's "I stand alone" in prince of persia: warrior within, signaling it was time to haul ass because the dahaka was soon to be pursuing your royal blooded avatar to name but a few.

Some game soundtracks have taken on almost iconic status. Most people will be able to recognise the Tetris theme. Mario's theme is also fairly recognisable and more recently popular music artists are becoming involved in the sountrack to games and its not uncommon to find current chart songs featured in the sountracks which then themselves go on to sell impresive quantities.

There are a number of video game composers and the capabilities of todays consoles has really enabled them to produce scores on a much more dramitic and larger scale.

As for "good times" being one of the most influential recordings in the 20th century im not sure about that but is certainly one of the most sampled in music history.

Week 17! When a bird gets sucked into an engine they call it "bird strike". It's not bird strike, it's "engine suck"!

The game engine, the heavy lifter of all the tech involved in game making. The game engine is the software responsible for managing the various functions of a game. The engine has a list of functions to perform such as a physics, animation and rendering to name but a few all which come together in a glorious crescendo enabling you to shoot a bad guy in the face on your favorite games!?!

With beginnings in games such as doom and quake in the 90's the game engine was soon on many developers shopping list. Rather than starting from scratch many developers will buy in an already existing engine. This provides a number of advantages such as quicker production times and a reduction in the production costs. This does however mean that any problems may need to be referred back to the engine developer and therefore another party then becomes involved in the production of the game.

The game engines employed in today's current generation of consoles are increasingly more sophisticated and there has been a separation in the different functions often running individually. An example of this is in racing games where the physics thread will be running at a different pace to many of the other core functions. This is a small example of some of the changes that have had to be made to how the game engine operates in order to incorporate the increasing need for realism in today's games.

Week 16! Haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.

I wouldn't say I'm a really a gamer. I tend to drift in and out of phases of playing on a fairly regular basis and then not playing anything for months at a time. For instance at the moment I am playing quite a few games down to the fact that I have only in the last few months, come into possession of an Xbox 360, prior to this change in console related circumstances however when all I had vent to my video game playing urge was a PlayStation 2, don't get me wrong, a much loved console but by this time well past it, in my fickle eyes, It was a shadow of its former self sitting under my TV probably ranting in a drunken state to all the other electrical appliances about how it used to be somebody.

The thing that appeals to me in gaming is the escapism and with this in mind when i am in the grip of the game playing phase I do tend to get engrossed and it then can sort of become a distraction.

As for the game culture as a whole I suppose I have noticed change. Fairly recently on my last few visits to the cinema their have been big dramatic, cinematic trailers on the big screen for a few highly anticipated game releases. This i dont think was something that happended a few years back so I think there has been a cultural shift and as games are becoming more sophisticated they are not just considered a pass time of the geek.

Week 15! This industry moves so fast it's really hard to tell. That's why I need a name that's cutting-edge, like CutCo, EdgeCom, Interslice.

The game industry has well and truly arrived in the sense that it is a multi billion pound, profit making machine but this is not a true reflection of its current state. behind the figures lay a problem.

Games used to be fairly cheap to produce yet would still sell in great volumes and in return the profit margin was great. This, unfortunately is no longer the case. Increasingly more sophisticated platforms has breed an increasingly more sophisticated consumer which in turn requires more sophisticated games. As a result games nowadays have production costs in the millions and unlike previous years when a team may produce several games in a year, the product is taking 2 or 3 years to completed.

This applied pressure to the employees of the games industry. As mentioned the games take longer to develop and cost more than ever before as a result more and more is being asked of the talent involved in the production. It appears there is an ongoing issue with the amount of hours an employee is expected or required to put in when working on a project.

It is not all bad, the pay for example, although not stratospheric is something that has increased as a result of the growth of the industry and most employees are paid what you could call a comfortable salary.

It seems the industry is at a stage of make or break. Either it could continue to grow with the the opportunities for advancement the current generation of consoles have brought with them or in a strange twist they could herald the end. It is the expectation of the games they also bring which has pushed the production costs higher and higher and caused the problem facing the industry at the moment in the first place.

It has reached a point where the consumer is possibly more demanding than ever in terms of what they expect from a game so there doesn't really seem any way to go back. One of the ways this is being confronted is the lifespan of the consoles. The industry has learnt that progressing to fast is a costly exercise. Another challenge the industry faces is finding a way to keep a handle on the production costs so that it is possible to keep developing games to this standard with out the reduction and loss of profit it has recently been suffering.

Week 11! Don't hate the player, hate the game....play!

Nooooo! not gameplay again! what does it mean? As I touched on previously I consider it a loose term to describe the players experience of playing any type of game. But this of course, is not a difinative answer. I dont know if there is one. what i do know is, what ever it is, it is important in making a good game.


I would say gameplay is made up of a lot of factors all coming together to provide the experience of playing the game. Anything that detracts from this has a negative effect on the experience of playing and therfore reduces the gameplay, this could be anything from poor controls to a badly designed level.

That is how I perceive gameplay and with that said I realise these are all things that are dependant on the individual so if I regard, say, the controls of a game to be awkward and unuseable another player may disagree so gameplay is opinion based. like most things in life it is impossible to please everyone and with this in mind it would be impossible for gameplay to programmed or designed into a game.

In my opinion one man's gameplay is another mans poison, where some may find gameplay, some may find none.

Gameplay, to me then, is the overall experience of playing a game and comprises of the various factors that make up a game working in a way that the individual finds and enjoyable experience.

Week 10!

Character design has become increasingly more important in gaming. A good character is an essential part of any story and a pivotal part of engaging with the audience.

Thinking of characters I have encountered my memory is not great so i will comment on a character who rate and who I re-visited recently. I thoroughly enjoyed the bourne movies, Identity, supremacy and most recently ultimatum. I am currently reading a book which continues the Jason Bourne character, titled the Bourne legacy.

Unfortunately however, I have never read the original books the movies are based on so I'm not sure how the character was originally envisioned by the author (Robert Ludlum). So the character in the movies is the one that appealed to me. Jason Bourne is a top assassin but rather than being an armed to the teeth, gun swinging action hero, Jason Bourne comes across as a believable person doing believable things.

I think the movies really captured the sense that Bourne is highly trained killer but that is not it, he is resourceful and highly intelligent, subtle touches like slipping in and out of a multitude of languages give depth and help reinforce this element.

I think this is one of the things that was appealing to me. It was reinventing the action hero and it was interesting to me to see how Bourne would deal with the situations he was placed in, both the combative, and the everyday.

I think any character is helped by a good script and performance. A good character needs to have good things to say and know the right way to say them. This is relevant in all aspects of story telling. The performance doesn't always have to require actor though an example that springs to mind is the "birth" of sandman in Spiderman 3. Not an actor in sight but it is a captivating and emotional moment built within a computer.

I do like a hero story. Someone selfless and/or triumphing against adversity whether it be the real world that exists in the Bourne movies or the more fantastical Spiderman etc. and this does filter into the sort of games I play.