Just one day shy of a year ago, I posted my farewell to 2010, and my hope that 2011 would be even greater than that amazing year.
Today, in my final post of 2011, I'm grateful that I'm able to say that it was.
While this New Years isn't spent in company of friends, I am with family, and through the magic of the internet I have the digital presence of my friends (does that count? I hope it does...)
Goodbye 2011, I will remember you fondly. You've been good to me, and I'll miss you greatly come tomorrow.
Yet with the start of this new year I will be heading into my final project here in VFS' Game Design program. And, if I am fortunate, I may be taking my first steps into my career as a game designer.
...Is it too much to hope for that 2012 will be even better?
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Sprucing commence-eth!
I stated a while back that this place could use some sprucing up. and I've finally gotten around to it. Figured I'd try something a little bit lighter this time.
Clouds are really fun to paint.
I think airships are required....
THAT IS ALL.
Clouds are really fun to paint.
I think airships are required....
THAT IS ALL.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
A Month...
...without updating. Whoops.
Well, I've finished term 3 and am enjoying my winter break before starting term 4 and *gasp* final project! O^O!!!!!
I've grouped up with 4 other students in my class and since we're all staying in Vancouver for the holidays we've met up a couple of times to chat and brainstorm a bit before the next term starts. Apparently we need 3 ideas to pitch to our mentors and get their feedback, so we're aiming to get about 6 basic ideas, then pick 3 and flesh them out.
Besides that, my break is consisting largely of work (extra shifts = more monies so Kimmy can stay warm and full over the next few months) and exploring the frozen, north edge of the world at the rim of the sky to face down giant fire breathing monstrosities with magic, steel, and voice; in other words: playing Skyrim! Mwee~ >w<
I am a Breton who favors conjuring and one armed weapons, with a little bit of archery for hunting :P But I'm thinking of making a second character to just run around and steal ALL THE THINGS, with the goal of simply being filthy stinking rich by any means necessary. Most likely either a Khajiit or a Dunmer.
I've noticed something though, in open world games like Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption, my favourite thing to do tends to be hunting. Seriously, anywhere I go is littered with the bodies of hundreds of innocent forest critters, their corpses ransacked for anything of use or value. I waste waaaay too much time chasing deer. I think maybe that's why games such as Lost in Blue, Minecraft, or Monster Hunter appeal to me; I really like hunting things down and scavenging for things to use for survival. Give me a game where I gut a wolf and use its hide to make a sleigh to carry mushrooms, eggs, and various small game back to my makeshift home in the middle of a vast world to explore full of lore and history and I am happy.
Maybe it just boils down to "I <3 looting"?
In other news, I've been messing around in Maya. I'm going to be doing a lot of art over the next several months, so I can definitely use the modelling practice. I'm just making random things and keeping everything relatively simple and low poly, so hopefully I'll be able to take at least some of it to use as a starting point for various assets in whatever game my group ends up making.
Well... that's all I can think of to say at the moment. So have some links.
Bird Boy - A fantastic webcomic set in a unique world full of puppetlike beasts
Rice Boy - A great site with 3 wonderful webcomics. I definitely recommend Vattu.
Etymology Dictionary - Ever wondered about the origin of certain words or sayings?
Behind the Name - Similar to the above, but specifically for names. Great for character naming.
Also, the Hobbit.
P.S., I'm trying this new thing where I link to games that I mention rather than just taking it as a given that people will know of them or will Google them. Good idea? Bad idea?
Well, I've finished term 3 and am enjoying my winter break before starting term 4 and *gasp* final project! O^O!!!!!
I've grouped up with 4 other students in my class and since we're all staying in Vancouver for the holidays we've met up a couple of times to chat and brainstorm a bit before the next term starts. Apparently we need 3 ideas to pitch to our mentors and get their feedback, so we're aiming to get about 6 basic ideas, then pick 3 and flesh them out.
Besides that, my break is consisting largely of work (extra shifts = more monies so Kimmy can stay warm and full over the next few months) and exploring the frozen, north edge of the world at the rim of the sky to face down giant fire breathing monstrosities with magic, steel, and voice; in other words: playing Skyrim! Mwee~ >w<
I am a Breton who favors conjuring and one armed weapons, with a little bit of archery for hunting :P But I'm thinking of making a second character to just run around and steal ALL THE THINGS, with the goal of simply being filthy stinking rich by any means necessary. Most likely either a Khajiit or a Dunmer.
I've noticed something though, in open world games like Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption, my favourite thing to do tends to be hunting. Seriously, anywhere I go is littered with the bodies of hundreds of innocent forest critters, their corpses ransacked for anything of use or value. I waste waaaay too much time chasing deer. I think maybe that's why games such as Lost in Blue, Minecraft, or Monster Hunter appeal to me; I really like hunting things down and scavenging for things to use for survival. Give me a game where I gut a wolf and use its hide to make a sleigh to carry mushrooms, eggs, and various small game back to my makeshift home in the middle of a vast world to explore full of lore and history and I am happy.
Maybe it just boils down to "I <3 looting"?
In other news, I've been messing around in Maya. I'm going to be doing a lot of art over the next several months, so I can definitely use the modelling practice. I'm just making random things and keeping everything relatively simple and low poly, so hopefully I'll be able to take at least some of it to use as a starting point for various assets in whatever game my group ends up making.
Well... that's all I can think of to say at the moment. So have some links.
Bird Boy - A fantastic webcomic set in a unique world full of puppetlike beasts
Rice Boy - A great site with 3 wonderful webcomics. I definitely recommend Vattu.
Etymology Dictionary - Ever wondered about the origin of certain words or sayings?
Behind the Name - Similar to the above, but specifically for names. Great for character naming.
Also, the Hobbit.
P.S., I'm trying this new thing where I link to games that I mention rather than just taking it as a given that people will know of them or will Google them. Good idea? Bad idea?
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Lighting Is The Best
Seriously, I love lighting class. As I mentioned last post we had to take one of our levels done in Level Design and pick a path through it and light it. I chose my half of the CTF level we had to do for level design, but I wound up lighting more than just the path I chose. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.
Screenshots galore!
Screenshots galore!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Perdy Lights
Wow, week 4 already.
This term has been a strange blend of hectic and relaxed. While I don't feel any immense pressure at the moment, I also don't feel like I have much- if any- free time. There's always always always something that needs to be worked on. Level design, general homework, lighting, modelling. The only reason I'm writing this blog post is because I'm waiting for lightmass to build in my UDK map (there shall likely be screenshots later this week or the next once it's done.)
This term we've moved into our streams, for Art I have 3d Modelling and Lighting and for Level Design I have Level Design 2 and Environmental Level Design. Level Design 2 focuses more on the gameplay aspect of level design while Environmental Level Design focuses more on aesthetics and theme. Both classes mesh really well with the lighting class, where we pick one of our UDK levels and work on some aspect of the lighting, from making sure there's a clear foreground, middleground and background, to guiding the player through the level using lighting, to using colour to set the tone of an area.
Besides streams we all have general classes, from Detailed Design Docs where we create a design document for a game in painstaking detail to User Interface Design where we learn the basics of designing a GUI to Mobile and Handheld where we look at the booming market for things such as iPhone games.
I'm really enjoying lighting especially. Good lighting can do so much for a level, it blows my mind! I'm also pretty excited for the next level design assignment, which is to basically create a single player game in UDK. I think I'm going to go for an Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider type theme. Jungle, Temple, Artifact, the whole shebang.
Also: Game Design Expo! Tickets have on on sale and I'll likely be purchasing mine on Thursday. Will have to take that day off work, but the slight hit to my wallet shall be well worth it.
Well, I think that's enough brain vomit for now. Though I could swear there's something I am forgetting.... hmm....
Oh yes.
SKYRIM!!
Gah! I want to play it.
This term has been a strange blend of hectic and relaxed. While I don't feel any immense pressure at the moment, I also don't feel like I have much- if any- free time. There's always always always something that needs to be worked on. Level design, general homework, lighting, modelling. The only reason I'm writing this blog post is because I'm waiting for lightmass to build in my UDK map (there shall likely be screenshots later this week or the next once it's done.)
This term we've moved into our streams, for Art I have 3d Modelling and Lighting and for Level Design I have Level Design 2 and Environmental Level Design. Level Design 2 focuses more on the gameplay aspect of level design while Environmental Level Design focuses more on aesthetics and theme. Both classes mesh really well with the lighting class, where we pick one of our UDK levels and work on some aspect of the lighting, from making sure there's a clear foreground, middleground and background, to guiding the player through the level using lighting, to using colour to set the tone of an area.
Besides streams we all have general classes, from Detailed Design Docs where we create a design document for a game in painstaking detail to User Interface Design where we learn the basics of designing a GUI to Mobile and Handheld where we look at the booming market for things such as iPhone games.
I'm really enjoying lighting especially. Good lighting can do so much for a level, it blows my mind! I'm also pretty excited for the next level design assignment, which is to basically create a single player game in UDK. I think I'm going to go for an Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider type theme. Jungle, Temple, Artifact, the whole shebang.
Also: Game Design Expo! Tickets have on on sale and I'll likely be purchasing mine on Thursday. Will have to take that day off work, but the slight hit to my wallet shall be well worth it.
Well, I think that's enough brain vomit for now. Though I could swear there's something I am forgetting.... hmm....
Oh yes.
SKYRIM!!
Gah! I want to play it.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
I will do Better Next Time
Term 2 has ended after a last few hectic weeks. While it was a really great term and I learned a lot, I'm disappointed in myself. I really feel I did not do my best work.
Our Flash game, unfortunately, was nowhere near the level we wanted it to be at. However we did manage to get the boss in at the end, and I painted up a title screen and end screen that I really liked. I think I'm going to try to finish up the enemies that didn't get into the game just so that I can have them in my portfolio, because I do like a lot of them. So that's something, at least.
Level Design was a good class, I wish I had done better on my Deathmatch level though. In the end it was just... too plain. I was worried about making things too cluttered and really just wound up not bringing it to the level of polish that I would've been happy with.
Well, since I'm already talking about classes, I suppose I'll mention a few more of them here. This is only a handful of the classes we had this term.
Game theory practical was awesome. In practical we basically played games all class, working our way up from some of the earlier games- Space Invaders, Tetris- to games today, moving through genres and topic, from alternate controls to open world and choice in games. At the end of each class we'd meet up and answer questions asked at the beginning of the class relating to that class' topic. It exposed me to quite a few games I never got the chance to play and gave me several lists of questions to ask myself when playing or designing a game. On top of it all it was just plain fun, and tied into another class of ours: Critical Analysis.
In Critical Analysis we wrote one page essays every week analyzing games we played in Game Theory Practical. We had to make a statement about the game and back it up with arguments. Fairly simple assignment, but the teacher was very thorough when grading them. He didn't care what statement we were making about the game, he just wanted to see that we were supporting it and structuring our essays well. It all really went back to the three paragraph essay format you learn in school, holy nostalgia Batman!
Our Game Mechanics class was, once again, a great class. In the first class we had to come up with an idea for a game that used only a single button as its mechanic, it really made you think about core gameplay. For our final class this came full circle, we had to get into groups and actually make a one button game in about 2 and a half hours. Our game basically consisted of hitting the space bar to make our teacher jump and eat pies while avoiding peanuts, puppies and bombs. It was just insane and awesome.
But above everything else, our Game Theory Digital class was amazing. The teacher is really incredible and insightful, he had a lot of great advice. The homework was unbelievably helpful as was his feedback; all of our homework was basically to create a game based on restrictions that he gave us and write up a concept doc for that game in a set number of pages and then pitch it within a time limit. It was awesome. For my final pitch I took a game idea I'd been hanging on to since term 1 about being inside a comic and breaking the fourth wall to solve puzzles.
One of the great things that our teacher did was he would let us know when our assignments were ready to be picked up, but we had to go to his office ourselves to get them. When we went to go get our marked papers he'd sit us down and speak with us about our concept doc and presentation. Just... wow. Amazing teacher. I think I really learned the most this term in that class.
On the last day of class we had our only in-class exercise (the class was mostly lecture with homework); we got into groups and were to design and pitch a game targeted at women. This was a nice, fun exercise. But... I feel like whenever 'games for women' comes up, everyone jumps to the social genre, and occasionally puzzle games. RPGs, FPSs, RTSs, etc. are all tossed aside as not being 'for women'. Then they strip away anything they consider to not be feminine; combat, violence, micro managing, stats, levels, mathy things, actions and choices that actually have a significant outcome or an impact on the game, and the intricacies of the mechanics are hidden from view. And at that point it feels like.... there's just not much left.
The thing is, I like combat in games. I like having stats to tweak and customise, and weighing the bonuses of different skill tree paths or equipment. I like my actions to have some weight to them or have some effect beyond superficial things. I think these reasons are why I like RPGs so much. I don't mind simple games or non-violent games, I've played and loved many games without those elements, but why are they taken away every single time guys are taken out of the picture?
In most 'games for women' I get the feeling like there's just nothing much for me to do. Or there are things to do, but I don't get to be the one who does them, other people in the game are the ones actually doing things or things just happen. Or if I do get to do things, they are unimportant. One of my biggest issues with media in general is that women don't get to do things; they get to help men do things or be the catalyst for why men are doing things.
I play games to do things. Particularly things that I don't get to or just outright can't do in real life. Please stop taking this away from me when you claim to be trying to create something for me.
Rantrantrantrantrant moving on.
Term 3 starts on Monday, and we've had to choose streams, just like in Foundations, though this time we pick 2 streams. There are 4 streams to choose from, Art, Programming, Level Design and Writing/Cinematics. We each get 2 special classes per stream but we all still have several general classes together and we can sit in on the other classes if we want to, we just don't have to do the homework and we won't be the instructor's priority.
I've chosen the Art and Level Design streams. Writing was very tempting, but Level Design is something I need to get better at and I think it will dovetail very nicely with the Art stream. Regardless of my choice, I will be sitting in on all the classes for as long as I can. More knowledge is always a good thing, and it will help me decide which classes I want to continue sitting in on if I get too busy to continue in all of them.
Well... while there is more to be said I think I would like to get to enjoying my break. Toodlepip.
Our Flash game, unfortunately, was nowhere near the level we wanted it to be at. However we did manage to get the boss in at the end, and I painted up a title screen and end screen that I really liked. I think I'm going to try to finish up the enemies that didn't get into the game just so that I can have them in my portfolio, because I do like a lot of them. So that's something, at least.
Level Design was a good class, I wish I had done better on my Deathmatch level though. In the end it was just... too plain. I was worried about making things too cluttered and really just wound up not bringing it to the level of polish that I would've been happy with.
Well, since I'm already talking about classes, I suppose I'll mention a few more of them here. This is only a handful of the classes we had this term.
Game theory practical was awesome. In practical we basically played games all class, working our way up from some of the earlier games- Space Invaders, Tetris- to games today, moving through genres and topic, from alternate controls to open world and choice in games. At the end of each class we'd meet up and answer questions asked at the beginning of the class relating to that class' topic. It exposed me to quite a few games I never got the chance to play and gave me several lists of questions to ask myself when playing or designing a game. On top of it all it was just plain fun, and tied into another class of ours: Critical Analysis.
In Critical Analysis we wrote one page essays every week analyzing games we played in Game Theory Practical. We had to make a statement about the game and back it up with arguments. Fairly simple assignment, but the teacher was very thorough when grading them. He didn't care what statement we were making about the game, he just wanted to see that we were supporting it and structuring our essays well. It all really went back to the three paragraph essay format you learn in school, holy nostalgia Batman!
Our Game Mechanics class was, once again, a great class. In the first class we had to come up with an idea for a game that used only a single button as its mechanic, it really made you think about core gameplay. For our final class this came full circle, we had to get into groups and actually make a one button game in about 2 and a half hours. Our game basically consisted of hitting the space bar to make our teacher jump and eat pies while avoiding peanuts, puppies and bombs. It was just insane and awesome.
But above everything else, our Game Theory Digital class was amazing. The teacher is really incredible and insightful, he had a lot of great advice. The homework was unbelievably helpful as was his feedback; all of our homework was basically to create a game based on restrictions that he gave us and write up a concept doc for that game in a set number of pages and then pitch it within a time limit. It was awesome. For my final pitch I took a game idea I'd been hanging on to since term 1 about being inside a comic and breaking the fourth wall to solve puzzles.
One of the great things that our teacher did was he would let us know when our assignments were ready to be picked up, but we had to go to his office ourselves to get them. When we went to go get our marked papers he'd sit us down and speak with us about our concept doc and presentation. Just... wow. Amazing teacher. I think I really learned the most this term in that class.
On the last day of class we had our only in-class exercise (the class was mostly lecture with homework); we got into groups and were to design and pitch a game targeted at women. This was a nice, fun exercise. But... I feel like whenever 'games for women' comes up, everyone jumps to the social genre, and occasionally puzzle games. RPGs, FPSs, RTSs, etc. are all tossed aside as not being 'for women'. Then they strip away anything they consider to not be feminine; combat, violence, micro managing, stats, levels, mathy things, actions and choices that actually have a significant outcome or an impact on the game, and the intricacies of the mechanics are hidden from view. And at that point it feels like.... there's just not much left.
The thing is, I like combat in games. I like having stats to tweak and customise, and weighing the bonuses of different skill tree paths or equipment. I like my actions to have some weight to them or have some effect beyond superficial things. I think these reasons are why I like RPGs so much. I don't mind simple games or non-violent games, I've played and loved many games without those elements, but why are they taken away every single time guys are taken out of the picture?
In most 'games for women' I get the feeling like there's just nothing much for me to do. Or there are things to do, but I don't get to be the one who does them, other people in the game are the ones actually doing things or things just happen. Or if I do get to do things, they are unimportant. One of my biggest issues with media in general is that women don't get to do things; they get to help men do things or be the catalyst for why men are doing things.
I play games to do things. Particularly things that I don't get to or just outright can't do in real life. Please stop taking this away from me when you claim to be trying to create something for me.
Rantrantrantrantrant moving on.
Term 3 starts on Monday, and we've had to choose streams, just like in Foundations, though this time we pick 2 streams. There are 4 streams to choose from, Art, Programming, Level Design and Writing/Cinematics. We each get 2 special classes per stream but we all still have several general classes together and we can sit in on the other classes if we want to, we just don't have to do the homework and we won't be the instructor's priority.
I've chosen the Art and Level Design streams. Writing was very tempting, but Level Design is something I need to get better at and I think it will dovetail very nicely with the Art stream. Regardless of my choice, I will be sitting in on all the classes for as long as I can. More knowledge is always a good thing, and it will help me decide which classes I want to continue sitting in on if I get too busy to continue in all of them.
Well... while there is more to be said I think I would like to get to enjoying my break. Toodlepip.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Ohai
Wow, only 1 week between posts? Maybe I can get back into the habit of posting these....
The end of term 2 is insane. We have so many projects; Flash, a Team Management group project, a reverse engineering group project, a Deathmatch level in UDK, our final Concept Doc & pitch, and our final weekly assignment for critical analysis. So much work!
Today was spent almost entirely working on the level for our flash game. I was hoping to finish up one more enemy this weekend too, but I don't know if that's going to happen.
I said I'd post more about our Flash game when I had the time and motivation, but I only feel half up to it. So how about I just sum up our Flash game in a nutshell? You are a rogue, you've found a mystical artifact, you fight zombie golem things in a cave. Here, have some screenshots:
Level's still in progress. Hopefully there will be a boss fight at the end, but the deadline is coming up fast.
In other news, Monday is Thanksgiving! But I'll likely be spending it at school working on my deathmatch level. I might bake cookies for a potluck that's going on at school though, we'll have to see if I have the time/energy for it.
Anyhoo, I suppose I'll do a bit more work and hit the hay, g'night.
The end of term 2 is insane. We have so many projects; Flash, a Team Management group project, a reverse engineering group project, a Deathmatch level in UDK, our final Concept Doc & pitch, and our final weekly assignment for critical analysis. So much work!
Today was spent almost entirely working on the level for our flash game. I was hoping to finish up one more enemy this weekend too, but I don't know if that's going to happen.
I said I'd post more about our Flash game when I had the time and motivation, but I only feel half up to it. So how about I just sum up our Flash game in a nutshell? You are a rogue, you've found a mystical artifact, you fight zombie golem things in a cave. Here, have some screenshots:
Level's still in progress. Hopefully there will be a boss fight at the end, but the deadline is coming up fast.
In other news, Monday is Thanksgiving! But I'll likely be spending it at school working on my deathmatch level. I might bake cookies for a potluck that's going on at school though, we'll have to see if I have the time/energy for it.
Anyhoo, I suppose I'll do a bit more work and hit the hay, g'night.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Game Design Wisdom
Regular posting fail.
Term 2 is barreling to a close and things are hectic, so this'll be just a quick post. Must work on Flash game! More on that later when I have the time and motivation... which may not come until the end of the term.
We have a lot of papers we have to write this term; mostly concept docs and critical analyses of games. These assignments are incredibly helpful though, picking apart games is fun and useful and knowing how to use language to its full potential will help you no matter what field you work in. Also being able to write an awesome concept document so you can pitch a game is invaluable.
This term also seems full of nuggets of wisdom, three of which I really don't want to forget.
1. No IP is bad.
2. No mater what IP you're forced to work with, make the game you want to make and make it good.
3. Saying "I want to work at _____ studio" is different from saying "I want to be good enough to work at ____ studio"
The third one really stuck with me. I want to be good enough to work at the studios I respect and admire the most; even if I don't end up working there.
Gaaah! That thought makes me want to draw!!
Back to work!
Term 2 is barreling to a close and things are hectic, so this'll be just a quick post. Must work on Flash game! More on that later when I have the time and motivation... which may not come until the end of the term.
We have a lot of papers we have to write this term; mostly concept docs and critical analyses of games. These assignments are incredibly helpful though, picking apart games is fun and useful and knowing how to use language to its full potential will help you no matter what field you work in. Also being able to write an awesome concept document so you can pitch a game is invaluable.
This term also seems full of nuggets of wisdom, three of which I really don't want to forget.
1. No IP is bad.
2. No mater what IP you're forced to work with, make the game you want to make and make it good.
3. Saying "I want to work at _____ studio" is different from saying "I want to be good enough to work at ____ studio"
The third one really stuck with me. I want to be good enough to work at the studios I respect and admire the most; even if I don't end up working there.
Gaaah! That thought makes me want to draw!!
Back to work!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Term 1, COMPLETE!
Dah, been a while, I should really try to get back into the habit of posting these regularly.
So yesterday was the end of my first term in Game Design. It was a great term and I really like my class, everyone is very nice and fun and funny. I created a board game, learned the basics of programming in C#, was introduced to Google Sketchup, and pitched a game idea to a room full of 20+ industry people.
That last one was terrifying.
But their feedback was fair and honest and it did help me learn. The way other classes were talking about it, it sounded like it was going to be harsh, but it wasn't, they were just very thorough in their critique, but never unfair. Just the way it should be :)
Other than the pitch the most daunting assignment we received was the board game. It was definitely the biggest project, but it was also pretty fun. I created a game I name Mithyr, where players work together against the board, trying to settle a cursed valley and slay a dragon. Unfortunately my game still had quite a few flaws by the end of things, and I didn't quite manage to pull off what I wanted to create (Originally I wanted the players to work against themselves as well as the board, but it wound up working better as a fully cooperative game). I still like what I came up with, though, maybe I'll work on it some more in the future.
Next term our big project is apparently a group flash game, according to the other classes it is going to kick our collective butts.
But for now we get a weeklong summer break, I think I'm going to fill it with Dragon Age 2 and Minecraft, aahhh....
So yesterday was the end of my first term in Game Design. It was a great term and I really like my class, everyone is very nice and fun and funny. I created a board game, learned the basics of programming in C#, was introduced to Google Sketchup, and pitched a game idea to a room full of 20+ industry people.
That last one was terrifying.
But their feedback was fair and honest and it did help me learn. The way other classes were talking about it, it sounded like it was going to be harsh, but it wasn't, they were just very thorough in their critique, but never unfair. Just the way it should be :)
Other than the pitch the most daunting assignment we received was the board game. It was definitely the biggest project, but it was also pretty fun. I created a game I name Mithyr, where players work together against the board, trying to settle a cursed valley and slay a dragon. Unfortunately my game still had quite a few flaws by the end of things, and I didn't quite manage to pull off what I wanted to create (Originally I wanted the players to work against themselves as well as the board, but it wound up working better as a fully cooperative game). I still like what I came up with, though, maybe I'll work on it some more in the future.
Next term our big project is apparently a group flash game, according to the other classes it is going to kick our collective butts.
But for now we get a weeklong summer break, I think I'm going to fill it with Dragon Age 2 and Minecraft, aahhh....
Friday, July 8, 2011
Well, This is Embarrassing...
3 months without a post? Oh dear... I'd say I had nothing to write about, but that would be a complete lie.
My group finished our final project, it was crazy and towards the end it was kicking out butts, but we got it done and we learned a lot. If anybody's interested, here's a link to where you can download it (fair warning: it's not very good, just the name should tip you off :P )
After that, well... I started Game Design! :D!! I'm currently writing this from Game Design Classroom 1. Apparently they want us to create a blog for school, surprise! How prepared I am.
Other things that have happened since my last post
-I didn't win the Women in Games scholarship, but I managed to get everything sorted out so I could come anyways, and the person who did win seems like she deserves it :)
-Jumped on a Minecraft server with my friends, it's super fun and I hope some of our class will join us. Can't wait for 1.8! Adventure Update!
-May have to leave my job depending on the workload I have for class :(
-Learning programming, yay!
-Have to create a board game for school
-Very, very tired --.--
Also, we have to create a flash portfolio site for class as well. Once I have that up and running I'll be linking it here.
Hmm.... this place could do with a bit of sprucing up I think, maybe I'll tweak things a tad.
My group finished our final project, it was crazy and towards the end it was kicking out butts, but we got it done and we learned a lot. If anybody's interested, here's a link to where you can download it (fair warning: it's not very good, just the name should tip you off :P )
After that, well... I started Game Design! :D!! I'm currently writing this from Game Design Classroom 1. Apparently they want us to create a blog for school, surprise! How prepared I am.
Other things that have happened since my last post
-I didn't win the Women in Games scholarship, but I managed to get everything sorted out so I could come anyways, and the person who did win seems like she deserves it :)
-Jumped on a Minecraft server with my friends, it's super fun and I hope some of our class will join us. Can't wait for 1.8! Adventure Update!
-May have to leave my job depending on the workload I have for class :(
-Learning programming, yay!
-Have to create a board game for school
-Very, very tired --.--
Also, we have to create a flash portfolio site for class as well. Once I have that up and running I'll be linking it here.
Hmm.... this place could do with a bit of sprucing up I think, maybe I'll tweak things a tad.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
In Space No One Can Hear You Play The Flute
I think more astronauts should bring cameras into outer space...
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Playing with Puppets
I stumbled across a Ted Talk recently featuring the life sized, ridable horse puppet from the play War Horse. I've never seen War Horse, so I can't give any opinion on the play itself, but the puppet is incredible and the style it gives to the play is just.... so unique. I just love the image of these earthy looking wooden horses moving about among the real people.
If you watch the first video, take a look at the shot about 30 seconds in. That single shot is amazing, the fluid motion of the puppet, if I couldn't see the puppeteers controlling the horse I would think that it was done in CG. Now that's talent.
Then again, maybe it just speaks to the child in me who wished her toys would come to life... particularly a certain awesome lion beanie I had...
And here is the Ted Talk demonstrating the puppet, just to warn you it's a little cheesy at points.
Now back to work I go!
If you watch the first video, take a look at the shot about 30 seconds in. That single shot is amazing, the fluid motion of the puppet, if I couldn't see the puppeteers controlling the horse I would think that it was done in CG. Now that's talent.
Then again, maybe it just speaks to the child in me who wished her toys would come to life... particularly a certain awesome lion beanie I had...
And here is the Ted Talk demonstrating the puppet, just to warn you it's a little cheesy at points.
Now back to work I go!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Texturing and More
I have faced the beast known as texturing and come out wiser and better for it.
It isn't too difficult to do, it just requires a lot of patience to do it well. Unwrapping, sewing edges, making sure the texture won't distort. I had the unfortunate lack of foresight to make my model a Hork Bajir rather than the human we were supposed to be modeling, and it's legs were... an absolute mess to deal with. I had to go back to them after I had more of a handle on it.
It's definitely something useful to practice, however, I'd also really like to get into actually painting textures. I think it will likely frustrate me a lot at first, but there's quite a bit of power in texturing and it's a skill I'd like to have.
Might be good to look into it more for our final project and get some practice in.
In other, slightly outdated news, a few weeks ago I purchased both Pokemon White and Dragon Age II, and I have to say I'm enjoying both quite a bit though I feel a bit guilty for starting on Dragon Age II while my copy of Dragon Age: Awakenings that I got for Christmas is still sitting there in the plastic.... probably feeling very unloved.
I'm not particularly far in either due to dividing the little gaming time I have between the two of them, however they're both quite enjoyable so far. Dragon Age II still feels quite buggy and slightly unpolished however, but it's great fun, I love the characters just as much as I loved the cast from Dragon Age Origins, and gray morality!! Thank you Bioware for making me think beyond "Do I want to be evil or good this time around?". I also like the fact that the dialogue options have tone indication, you can be blunt and forceful or lighthearted and sarcastic, or diplomatic and pacifying.
And pokemon... goodness, every time a new game comes out I go on such a pokemon binge. It is my guilty pleasure, I admit it, but I just love the series. I grabbed the oshawott, named him Derpymaru, evolved him into a dewott and I'm currently looking for an everstone to prevent him from becoming a samurott (I like dewott's design much more). I still love pokemon after all these years, but I have noticed their designs seem to have gotten unnecessarily complicated over the years, they were much simpler in the beginning in general, nowadays they have so much extra crap on them.
Anyways, I suppose it's time to wrap this up. To end things off, I'll leave you with this trailer for an upcoming movie... It may be of interest to you, after all future events such as these will affect you in the future :P
It isn't too difficult to do, it just requires a lot of patience to do it well. Unwrapping, sewing edges, making sure the texture won't distort. I had the unfortunate lack of foresight to make my model a Hork Bajir rather than the human we were supposed to be modeling, and it's legs were... an absolute mess to deal with. I had to go back to them after I had more of a handle on it.
It's definitely something useful to practice, however, I'd also really like to get into actually painting textures. I think it will likely frustrate me a lot at first, but there's quite a bit of power in texturing and it's a skill I'd like to have.
Might be good to look into it more for our final project and get some practice in.
In other, slightly outdated news, a few weeks ago I purchased both Pokemon White and Dragon Age II, and I have to say I'm enjoying both quite a bit though I feel a bit guilty for starting on Dragon Age II while my copy of Dragon Age: Awakenings that I got for Christmas is still sitting there in the plastic.... probably feeling very unloved.
I'm not particularly far in either due to dividing the little gaming time I have between the two of them, however they're both quite enjoyable so far. Dragon Age II still feels quite buggy and slightly unpolished however, but it's great fun, I love the characters just as much as I loved the cast from Dragon Age Origins, and gray morality!! Thank you Bioware for making me think beyond "Do I want to be evil or good this time around?". I also like the fact that the dialogue options have tone indication, you can be blunt and forceful or lighthearted and sarcastic, or diplomatic and pacifying.
And pokemon... goodness, every time a new game comes out I go on such a pokemon binge. It is my guilty pleasure, I admit it, but I just love the series. I grabbed the oshawott, named him Derpymaru, evolved him into a dewott and I'm currently looking for an everstone to prevent him from becoming a samurott (I like dewott's design much more). I still love pokemon after all these years, but I have noticed their designs seem to have gotten unnecessarily complicated over the years, they were much simpler in the beginning in general, nowadays they have so much extra crap on them.
Anyways, I suppose it's time to wrap this up. To end things off, I'll leave you with this trailer for an upcoming movie... It may be of interest to you, after all future events such as these will affect you in the future :P
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Character Modeling
So this past week we started character modeling in Maya. I find it rather interesting, especially considering before I joined up with my fellow future Game Design students, I was kicking around the idea of designing and modeling a creature for my final.
Despite teachers constantly talking about the importance of not saving over the same file, making new files so that you can always go back to a previous version if you bork something up, I regrettably rarely listen. However in Maya, I can definitely see the usefulness of this. Particularly because as you work on your model and make it more complex in order to get the shape you want, you do risk winding up with far too many vertexes to be able to work efficiently. I know myself, and I know that I could easily end up with a mess of a model, too complex for a newcomer like me to be able to really work with it.
Over the past couple of days I've been looking at low poly models to try to get a sense of how complicated it would be to create our own zombies from scratch for our game. It's interesting to see how people fudge details on models by using textures; why painstakingly model wrinkles, folds in clothing, curls of hair, etc. when you can simply texture it to make it appear as if those things are there? Textures are powerful things, and I'd love to be able to add it to my arsenal of skills, however we've only covered some of the basics last term, so texturing is still a bit of an intimidating creature in my mind.
Thankfully I believe we'll be tackling that beast next class.
Despite teachers constantly talking about the importance of not saving over the same file, making new files so that you can always go back to a previous version if you bork something up, I regrettably rarely listen. However in Maya, I can definitely see the usefulness of this. Particularly because as you work on your model and make it more complex in order to get the shape you want, you do risk winding up with far too many vertexes to be able to work efficiently. I know myself, and I know that I could easily end up with a mess of a model, too complex for a newcomer like me to be able to really work with it.
Over the past couple of days I've been looking at low poly models to try to get a sense of how complicated it would be to create our own zombies from scratch for our game. It's interesting to see how people fudge details on models by using textures; why painstakingly model wrinkles, folds in clothing, curls of hair, etc. when you can simply texture it to make it appear as if those things are there? Textures are powerful things, and I'd love to be able to add it to my arsenal of skills, however we've only covered some of the basics last term, so texturing is still a bit of an intimidating creature in my mind.
Thankfully I believe we'll be tackling that beast next class.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Post Process Volumes, Anothology Covers and Turtles, oh my!
Dropped off my scholarship applications last week, all I can do now it cross my fingers and hope for the best... and have nightmares about being disqualified for overlooking something and making a tiny mistake on my application. Heh heh...
But let's talk about less stressful things, I've been making my way through UDK tutorials and just finished off the basics of creating a level and got my first taste of Kismet. The idea of visual scripting is very intriguing to me, code is something I've wanted to learn for a long time, however I am definitely a much more visually oriented person. Other, more widespread coding languages are still something I'd like to sink my teeth into however. I am getting a taste of some coding in flash class, but it's not really the main focus of the class and we haven't gone very in depth so far; unless we dive further in down the line, it's only serving to whet my appetite.
One of the things I learned about today was post process volumes. I have to say it's probably rather silly how much I like those things, but man, the possibilities!
This probably isn't the best explanation, but basically a post process volume allows you to change the look of a particular area of your level by adding a volume around it. You can change the settings of that volume to to tweak things like the colour of the area, the depth of field, bloom and more, and you can change how quickly these settings take effect. For example, if you were making a horror level, you could set up a volume around a particular room that would cause everything to suddenly turns red once the player walked into that room, or you could set it up so that as the player explores and spends more time in the room, the colour slowly fades away until everything is black and white.
There's so many ways you could apply this; you could create a desert game where the environment feels boiling out in the open, but stepping into a cave feels instantly cooler. Or you could make an area filled with poison, that causes the player's vision to be slowly more blurred the longer they stay there, as if their character is about to pass out. It makes me want to take what I learned in Cine class about movie lighting and create a level in which the player walks through different movie genres, from Horror, to Western to Noir to Sci-Fi.
Anyhoo, tomorrow I have comic class, which so far looks like it'll be great fun. We're teaming up with students from VFS's writing program, they'll be writing four pages of a comic and we'll be drawing them, in the end it will all be put together as an anthology. Last class the writing students pitched 3 concepts and we got teamed up, and I'm quite happy with the story I'm to illustrate. However, the comic class is for Animation stream students and I'm in the digital design stream, I'm just sitting in on it because I really love comics and I wanted to learn more about creating them. As a result I'm supposed to help with the cover and packaging for the anthology and I'm to make that my primary focus. At work today I was jotting down some ideas for a theme to sort of tie the whole anthology together, something like The Worlds Inside your Head, or Creativity or Bringing your Ideas to Life, to emphasize the joining of different VFS programs in the common goal of learning and creating, or possibly something like Comic vs Graphic as we have a mix or more comedic, newspaper style "comics" versus darker, more mature "graphic novel" type stories.
Well, I have work to do, so I should probably wrap this up for now. I suppose I'll finish this post off with another video, I've been throwing a lot of these up here lately, haven't I?
So cute.... so tiny....
Oh and... um... it-it's a wonderful use of depth of field... and really shows turtle movement and anatomy which could be a helpful reference for anyone wanting to draw a turtle...
Yeah.... That's totally why I linked it.
But let's talk about less stressful things, I've been making my way through UDK tutorials and just finished off the basics of creating a level and got my first taste of Kismet. The idea of visual scripting is very intriguing to me, code is something I've wanted to learn for a long time, however I am definitely a much more visually oriented person. Other, more widespread coding languages are still something I'd like to sink my teeth into however. I am getting a taste of some coding in flash class, but it's not really the main focus of the class and we haven't gone very in depth so far; unless we dive further in down the line, it's only serving to whet my appetite.
One of the things I learned about today was post process volumes. I have to say it's probably rather silly how much I like those things, but man, the possibilities!
This probably isn't the best explanation, but basically a post process volume allows you to change the look of a particular area of your level by adding a volume around it. You can change the settings of that volume to to tweak things like the colour of the area, the depth of field, bloom and more, and you can change how quickly these settings take effect. For example, if you were making a horror level, you could set up a volume around a particular room that would cause everything to suddenly turns red once the player walked into that room, or you could set it up so that as the player explores and spends more time in the room, the colour slowly fades away until everything is black and white.
There's so many ways you could apply this; you could create a desert game where the environment feels boiling out in the open, but stepping into a cave feels instantly cooler. Or you could make an area filled with poison, that causes the player's vision to be slowly more blurred the longer they stay there, as if their character is about to pass out. It makes me want to take what I learned in Cine class about movie lighting and create a level in which the player walks through different movie genres, from Horror, to Western to Noir to Sci-Fi.
Anyhoo, tomorrow I have comic class, which so far looks like it'll be great fun. We're teaming up with students from VFS's writing program, they'll be writing four pages of a comic and we'll be drawing them, in the end it will all be put together as an anthology. Last class the writing students pitched 3 concepts and we got teamed up, and I'm quite happy with the story I'm to illustrate. However, the comic class is for Animation stream students and I'm in the digital design stream, I'm just sitting in on it because I really love comics and I wanted to learn more about creating them. As a result I'm supposed to help with the cover and packaging for the anthology and I'm to make that my primary focus. At work today I was jotting down some ideas for a theme to sort of tie the whole anthology together, something like The Worlds Inside your Head, or Creativity or Bringing your Ideas to Life, to emphasize the joining of different VFS programs in the common goal of learning and creating, or possibly something like Comic vs Graphic as we have a mix or more comedic, newspaper style "comics" versus darker, more mature "graphic novel" type stories.
Well, I have work to do, so I should probably wrap this up for now. I suppose I'll finish this post off with another video, I've been throwing a lot of these up here lately, haven't I?
So cute.... so tiny....
Oh and... um... it-it's a wonderful use of depth of field... and really shows turtle movement and anatomy which could be a helpful reference for anyone wanting to draw a turtle...
Yeah.... That's totally why I linked it.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Mostly Videos
I like when people can appreciate solitude, I've never understood people who can't stand being alone for very long, quiet can be nice.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a beautiful movie, with wonderful animation, story and amazing scenery shots. I've also found it seems to have a disproportionate number of well done AMVs compared to most other anime (yes I'm an AMV junkie...)
A video I came across a while ago and recently stumbled upon again. You may not want to watch if you're easily creeped out.
Ahh gaming.... you've come a long way.
Behind the scenes of the ever so popular old spice commercials, it's interesting to see what goes into all those set changes.
And finally, an absolutely beautiful little animation called Out of Sight, reminds me of Studio Ghibli in a lot of ways.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a beautiful movie, with wonderful animation, story and amazing scenery shots. I've also found it seems to have a disproportionate number of well done AMVs compared to most other anime (yes I'm an AMV junkie...)
A video I came across a while ago and recently stumbled upon again. You may not want to watch if you're easily creeped out.
Ahh gaming.... you've come a long way.
Behind the scenes of the ever so popular old spice commercials, it's interesting to see what goes into all those set changes.
And finally, an absolutely beautiful little animation called Out of Sight, reminds me of Studio Ghibli in a lot of ways.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Break Time is Work Time
Got a couple days off of school now that term 4 has ended.
Time to catch up on UDK tutorials and work on scholarship stuffs, I want to get my scholarship stuff more or less done this weekend so I can focus on final project stuff.
But this is pretty much me right now:
hmmm... I could say more, but I think I'll save it for later and try to get my stuff done.
In lieu of words, have another video:
Time to catch up on UDK tutorials and work on scholarship stuffs, I want to get my scholarship stuff more or less done this weekend so I can focus on final project stuff.
But this is pretty much me right now:
hmmm... I could say more, but I think I'll save it for later and try to get my stuff done.
In lieu of words, have another video:
Friday, February 18, 2011
Unbelievably Tired
My brain is really fuzzy right now; there is a good chance I may fall asleep as I type this, so please bear with me and my strange, winding train of thought.
Today marks the end of week 7 of term 4, next week will be our final week before term 5, where we go blasting off into the exciting realm of our final project. This past week or so has given me a taste of what it is going to be like for the next four months; sleep deprivation, strict deadlines to meet, coordinating and working within a group as everyone's rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off.
I cannot wait for this insanity to begin.
As stressful as it may be, it is also an incredible learning experience and one crazy ride, one I thoroughly hope to enjoy. Our first landmark we need to hit is a small, playable version of our game (nothing fancy, only the basic features and simple blocks comprising most of it) which will help us work out very quickly what problems we may have when it comes to gameplay experience, the idea is that if it is fun to play as an incomplete game with blocks acting as substitutes for all the shiny graphics, then we're on the right track.
Speaking of gameplay, though I've mentioned that my final project is going to be a collaboration with my fellow future Game Design students to create a game, I believe I have yet to actually mention what said game will be about.
The working title for our game is FPSSCRG, which stands for First Person Shooter Survival Comedy Racing Game. Think Dead Rising meets Resident Evil meets Mario Kart and you start to get an idea of how ridiculous our game is going to be. The main point of the game will be to move around a racetrack, killing zombies and completing laps. As you play the number of zombies increases, making it harder and harder to complete laps quickly and survive (yet another goal of yours). Killing zombies and completing laps quickly nets you points towards your score, the ultimate goal being to get your score as high as possible. As you move around the track there will be powerups which you can collect to more effectively kill zombies and complete laps.
Yes, we are absolutely insane, but if we an pull off combining all these disparate elements into a smooth, irreverent, hilarious gameplay experience, well....
well...
...well my brain is fuzzy as mentioned earlier, but the words EPIC WIN come to mind.
Anyways, I shall talk more on that at a later date when my mind is in a more coherent state. Onto other things...
Today my Life Drawing class had it's exhibition, throughout term 4 everyone had to go and create an individual piece of artwork that somehow related to life drawing, with the end result being showcased towards the end of term. For my project, I chose to take an idea that I had many months ago at one of VFS' drawing parties (Font Licker, back in term 1 or 2 I believe) and develop it further. Basically the original concept was to take my classmates names and replace the first letter with an animal mimicking the shape of the letter. For this revamp, I decided to impose stricter rules on myself:
1. Must do everyone's name
2. First letter must be some sort of myth or folklore
3. Myth/folktale used must begin with the same letter as the person's name
So began many weeks of scouring the internet and my book of mythology for figures, stories, places, creatures that suited each classmate to some degree, sketching long into the night, and discovering that my class has a highly disproportionate number of 'J' and 'M' names....
All in all, I'm more or less pleased with how they all came out. I had to pull an all nighter the day before the exhibition to get them all done in time, but it was worth it. The artworks we shown as a digital slideshow projected onto a wall, and it was nice seeing them up there, nice and shiny and done! Finally done! My gosh, so much work! I nearly bit off more than I could chew with this project considering there are 29 other students in my class!
If you want to take a look at all the completed names, I have them up in an album on Facebook here.
In other news, Dragon Age II is coming out next month and I cannot wait. I absolutely adored Dragon Age Origins, and while I have yet to sink my teeth into the copy of Dragon Age Awakenings I got for Christmas, I have high hopes for it. It may be a while before I get a chance to play it, but I am still eagerly awaiting it's release date.
One issue I do have with Dragon Age II so far, however, is the lack of promotional material featuring the female version of the protagonist. Normally I'm pretty forgiving about this sort of thing but.... from all the promotional stuff, you'd think you can't play as a girl at all. For Male Hawke we have numerous screenshots, kickass videos, in game footage, promotional artwork, an iconic piece of artwork in which he is walking towards the viewer with the Dragon Age blood dragon rising behind him; what do we get for Lady Hawke? a few screenshots, you can find a small clip of gameplay footage online if you look, but that's about it.
Seriously? Release date only weeks away and that's all we've got? I mean, I'm not expecting a beautiful cinematic trailed featuring Lady Hawke-- they did one for Male Hawk, sure, but those things are costly and time consuming to make, I don't really expect them to make two of them just to please everyone. I'm perfectly happy watching Male Hawke be all around kickass and accepting 'that will be my character'-- but... not even one trailer with maybe some mixed gameplay footage? No? Okay, just a little bit of promotional artwork then? No? Maybe just some concept art? I'm not asking for much here, just a little bit of validation. Heck, I'd be content if they did a version of this iconic piece of promo material featuring Lady Hawke. Yet nothing, or at least nothing that I've found.
Perhaps I'm nitpicking a bit.... but with so much out there showing how awesome and cool Hawke is in his male incarnation, it would be nice to have female Hawke be acknowledged just a little as well.
Well enough with the depressing stuff, while I am waiting for Dragon Age II to come out, and wishing I had the free time to actually sit down and get start on Awakenings, I have been able to get my Dragon Age fix through a certain closed beta on facebook... Many thanks to my friend who gave me one of his beta keys were he got an invite. It's something I can sit down and play for a little bit when I have a spare moment and just need to relax for a bit, so I can get my gaming fix without having to sift through my games for something that doesn't require hours of investment (I have a bias towards long, cinematic games as opposed to casual ones...)
I should probably wrap this up... but first.
Freaky 13 was edited and screened in class; it was far from perfect, but it was a wonderful learning experience and we got some great feedback from our teacher on how to improve it. Our group's director is re-editing it with the feedback we were given in the hopes of making a stronger portfolio piece for himself.
Though our blood effects were pretty good if I do say so myself :P
I think that's about it for this post, there's so much more I could write about, but I'll save that for next time.
Today marks the end of week 7 of term 4, next week will be our final week before term 5, where we go blasting off into the exciting realm of our final project. This past week or so has given me a taste of what it is going to be like for the next four months; sleep deprivation, strict deadlines to meet, coordinating and working within a group as everyone's rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off.
I cannot wait for this insanity to begin.
As stressful as it may be, it is also an incredible learning experience and one crazy ride, one I thoroughly hope to enjoy. Our first landmark we need to hit is a small, playable version of our game (nothing fancy, only the basic features and simple blocks comprising most of it) which will help us work out very quickly what problems we may have when it comes to gameplay experience, the idea is that if it is fun to play as an incomplete game with blocks acting as substitutes for all the shiny graphics, then we're on the right track.
Speaking of gameplay, though I've mentioned that my final project is going to be a collaboration with my fellow future Game Design students to create a game, I believe I have yet to actually mention what said game will be about.
The working title for our game is FPSSCRG, which stands for First Person Shooter Survival Comedy Racing Game. Think Dead Rising meets Resident Evil meets Mario Kart and you start to get an idea of how ridiculous our game is going to be. The main point of the game will be to move around a racetrack, killing zombies and completing laps. As you play the number of zombies increases, making it harder and harder to complete laps quickly and survive (yet another goal of yours). Killing zombies and completing laps quickly nets you points towards your score, the ultimate goal being to get your score as high as possible. As you move around the track there will be powerups which you can collect to more effectively kill zombies and complete laps.
Yes, we are absolutely insane, but if we an pull off combining all these disparate elements into a smooth, irreverent, hilarious gameplay experience, well....
well...
...well my brain is fuzzy as mentioned earlier, but the words EPIC WIN come to mind.
Anyways, I shall talk more on that at a later date when my mind is in a more coherent state. Onto other things...
Today my Life Drawing class had it's exhibition, throughout term 4 everyone had to go and create an individual piece of artwork that somehow related to life drawing, with the end result being showcased towards the end of term. For my project, I chose to take an idea that I had many months ago at one of VFS' drawing parties (Font Licker, back in term 1 or 2 I believe) and develop it further. Basically the original concept was to take my classmates names and replace the first letter with an animal mimicking the shape of the letter. For this revamp, I decided to impose stricter rules on myself:
1. Must do everyone's name
2. First letter must be some sort of myth or folklore
3. Myth/folktale used must begin with the same letter as the person's name
So began many weeks of scouring the internet and my book of mythology for figures, stories, places, creatures that suited each classmate to some degree, sketching long into the night, and discovering that my class has a highly disproportionate number of 'J' and 'M' names....
All in all, I'm more or less pleased with how they all came out. I had to pull an all nighter the day before the exhibition to get them all done in time, but it was worth it. The artworks we shown as a digital slideshow projected onto a wall, and it was nice seeing them up there, nice and shiny and done! Finally done! My gosh, so much work! I nearly bit off more than I could chew with this project considering there are 29 other students in my class!
If you want to take a look at all the completed names, I have them up in an album on Facebook here.
In other news, Dragon Age II is coming out next month and I cannot wait. I absolutely adored Dragon Age Origins, and while I have yet to sink my teeth into the copy of Dragon Age Awakenings I got for Christmas, I have high hopes for it. It may be a while before I get a chance to play it, but I am still eagerly awaiting it's release date.
One issue I do have with Dragon Age II so far, however, is the lack of promotional material featuring the female version of the protagonist. Normally I'm pretty forgiving about this sort of thing but.... from all the promotional stuff, you'd think you can't play as a girl at all. For Male Hawke we have numerous screenshots, kickass videos, in game footage, promotional artwork, an iconic piece of artwork in which he is walking towards the viewer with the Dragon Age blood dragon rising behind him; what do we get for Lady Hawke? a few screenshots, you can find a small clip of gameplay footage online if you look, but that's about it.
Seriously? Release date only weeks away and that's all we've got? I mean, I'm not expecting a beautiful cinematic trailed featuring Lady Hawke-- they did one for Male Hawk, sure, but those things are costly and time consuming to make, I don't really expect them to make two of them just to please everyone. I'm perfectly happy watching Male Hawke be all around kickass and accepting 'that will be my character'-- but... not even one trailer with maybe some mixed gameplay footage? No? Okay, just a little bit of promotional artwork then? No? Maybe just some concept art? I'm not asking for much here, just a little bit of validation. Heck, I'd be content if they did a version of this iconic piece of promo material featuring Lady Hawke. Yet nothing, or at least nothing that I've found.
Perhaps I'm nitpicking a bit.... but with so much out there showing how awesome and cool Hawke is in his male incarnation, it would be nice to have female Hawke be acknowledged just a little as well.
Well enough with the depressing stuff, while I am waiting for Dragon Age II to come out, and wishing I had the free time to actually sit down and get start on Awakenings, I have been able to get my Dragon Age fix through a certain closed beta on facebook... Many thanks to my friend who gave me one of his beta keys were he got an invite. It's something I can sit down and play for a little bit when I have a spare moment and just need to relax for a bit, so I can get my gaming fix without having to sift through my games for something that doesn't require hours of investment (I have a bias towards long, cinematic games as opposed to casual ones...)
I should probably wrap this up... but first.
Freaky 13 was edited and screened in class; it was far from perfect, but it was a wonderful learning experience and we got some great feedback from our teacher on how to improve it. Our group's director is re-editing it with the feedback we were given in the hopes of making a stronger portfolio piece for himself.
Though our blood effects were pretty good if I do say so myself :P
I think that's about it for this post, there's so much more I could write about, but I'll save that for next time.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sleeeeeeeep
I am so absoultly tired, I can't believe it. If my train of thought seems to go crashing off the tracks more than usual in this post, blame it on sleep deprivation. Ah well, it's good practice for my next 2 terms.
This past weekend my freaky 13 group filmed, my apartment was taken over by lighting equipment and we splattered fake blood all over my kitchen floor, ordered pizza and pulled out a large amount of our own hair trying to figure out how to light in the tiny space that makes up my kitchen and bathroom. It was great fun, but also very exhausting and frustrating at times. Now we're into post production, I hope everything turns out nicely :) But shooting late into the night, then getting up early for work, then heading straight home to continue shooting.... very tiring. I have some homework I should work on, but right now I think I'm just going to update my homework list, work out my priorities for what I should work on when and hit the hay, give myself one day of rest before jumping back into work.
Today my final project group had a meeting with a member of the game design staff about our game, he was very helpful and nice, and brought in the level design teacher (whose level design sample class I attended at the game design expo) to speak with us a little bit. He even talked to me a little bit about the scholarships I am applying for and wished me luck. I also wound up getting a third letter of reference from the program manager of Foundations, I expressed some worry about giving the scholarship committees more than they ask for, as I know they have a lot of applications to go through and I don't want to take up their time, but he told me not to worry about that. All this just makes me even more determined to find some way to pay my tuition, I will figure something out.
After the talk with the game design staff we headed back to school, popped into the coffee shop and met up with a member of our group who couldn't make it to the meeting, we filled him in on what we had talked about. After that I wound up spending a good chunk of time sketching out some really rough concept art for a personal project of his, which was quite fun, looks like I don't have to worry anymore about my drawing skills stagnating.
Well, I think I'm going to end this post here, I should probably get some rest, tomorrow will be another busy day.
This past weekend my freaky 13 group filmed, my apartment was taken over by lighting equipment and we splattered fake blood all over my kitchen floor, ordered pizza and pulled out a large amount of our own hair trying to figure out how to light in the tiny space that makes up my kitchen and bathroom. It was great fun, but also very exhausting and frustrating at times. Now we're into post production, I hope everything turns out nicely :) But shooting late into the night, then getting up early for work, then heading straight home to continue shooting.... very tiring. I have some homework I should work on, but right now I think I'm just going to update my homework list, work out my priorities for what I should work on when and hit the hay, give myself one day of rest before jumping back into work.
Today my final project group had a meeting with a member of the game design staff about our game, he was very helpful and nice, and brought in the level design teacher (whose level design sample class I attended at the game design expo) to speak with us a little bit. He even talked to me a little bit about the scholarships I am applying for and wished me luck. I also wound up getting a third letter of reference from the program manager of Foundations, I expressed some worry about giving the scholarship committees more than they ask for, as I know they have a lot of applications to go through and I don't want to take up their time, but he told me not to worry about that. All this just makes me even more determined to find some way to pay my tuition, I will figure something out.
After the talk with the game design staff we headed back to school, popped into the coffee shop and met up with a member of our group who couldn't make it to the meeting, we filled him in on what we had talked about. After that I wound up spending a good chunk of time sketching out some really rough concept art for a personal project of his, which was quite fun, looks like I don't have to worry anymore about my drawing skills stagnating.
Well, I think I'm going to end this post here, I should probably get some rest, tomorrow will be another busy day.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Game Design!
Well it looks like I'll get my wish for sketching more often, for my final project I'm teaming up with several classmates to make a game, and I'll be doing a large amount of the concept artwork :D
Farewell sleep, I will miss you during the next few months...
Anyhoo, school is crazy busy right now, besides planning out the final project, I am the production manager for my Freaky 13 group (paperwork, paperwork, paperwork) I have to make a short video with my group for Art and Creativity (which will hopefully be filmed this Friday) I have my life drawing project which keeps getting pushed down on my priority list, I have two 3 page scripts of dialogue due for writing that I need to do (also a group thing BTW) as well as my final script for writing, and I also need to work on my elevator pitch for our Final Project class (way down on my priority list as well....)
I also need to figure things out when it comes to the student loan I'm applying for, and the 2 scholarships I'm applying for. Meep! Yet more paperwork >.<
I'm really hoping to get the Women in Games scholarship, it would pay my entire tuition for game design, which would be a load off my mind. But for the scholarships I need to get 2 letters of reference (I asked 2 of my instructors and they both agreed, which I'm really thankful for) do a synopsis for a game I am passionate about making, and write an open letter explaining why I deserve the scholarship. I've picked which game idea I'm going with, I just need to flesh it out now, and I have a wordpad document full of brain vomit relating to the letter. I'm really glad I'm in my Final Project and Career Orientations classes right now, because the things they've taught us about industry expectations and making yourself stand out are really helping, I'm trying to take it all to heart and make my open letter the best it can be.
This past weekend I attended the Game Design Expo with a few friends, it was amazing and I'm so glad I got to go. I was originally only going to attend the free open house on Sunday, however I wound up getting to go to the Industry Speaker Day of Saturday thanks to a friend :D I missed the first half because I had to work, but the few talks I got to attend were great, they were very informative and fun. after the talks there was time to meet and talk with other people attending the event, I just wanted to hide though D: But we wound up meeting a girl who's going to be in our Game Design class for June. She fit right into our little group and she wound up hanging out with us for the rest of the weekend and giving input into the game we're making for our final. Turns out she's my competition for the Women in Games scholarship, but that's okay, I hope one of us wins it :)
On Sunday they announced the Women in Games scholarship, we both picked up the forms and asked our questions. Then we got to sit in on a few classes, we missed out on the flash gaming class, but the other classes we attended were great. There were prizes, none of which I won, but my friends won things, including several copies of Halo Reach and some angry birds plushies. I took a ton of notes and we threw ideas around for our game in between classes, we also met up at a Starbucks afterward and discussed it more.
All in all it was a great weekend. There were also things scheduled on Friday, however I could not attend as I unfortunately had a class.... :(
Well, I think that's about all for this post, so until later :P
Farewell sleep, I will miss you during the next few months...
Anyhoo, school is crazy busy right now, besides planning out the final project, I am the production manager for my Freaky 13 group (paperwork, paperwork, paperwork) I have to make a short video with my group for Art and Creativity (which will hopefully be filmed this Friday) I have my life drawing project which keeps getting pushed down on my priority list, I have two 3 page scripts of dialogue due for writing that I need to do (also a group thing BTW) as well as my final script for writing, and I also need to work on my elevator pitch for our Final Project class (way down on my priority list as well....)
I also need to figure things out when it comes to the student loan I'm applying for, and the 2 scholarships I'm applying for. Meep! Yet more paperwork >.<
I'm really hoping to get the Women in Games scholarship, it would pay my entire tuition for game design, which would be a load off my mind. But for the scholarships I need to get 2 letters of reference (I asked 2 of my instructors and they both agreed, which I'm really thankful for) do a synopsis for a game I am passionate about making, and write an open letter explaining why I deserve the scholarship. I've picked which game idea I'm going with, I just need to flesh it out now, and I have a wordpad document full of brain vomit relating to the letter. I'm really glad I'm in my Final Project and Career Orientations classes right now, because the things they've taught us about industry expectations and making yourself stand out are really helping, I'm trying to take it all to heart and make my open letter the best it can be.
This past weekend I attended the Game Design Expo with a few friends, it was amazing and I'm so glad I got to go. I was originally only going to attend the free open house on Sunday, however I wound up getting to go to the Industry Speaker Day of Saturday thanks to a friend :D I missed the first half because I had to work, but the few talks I got to attend were great, they were very informative and fun. after the talks there was time to meet and talk with other people attending the event, I just wanted to hide though D: But we wound up meeting a girl who's going to be in our Game Design class for June. She fit right into our little group and she wound up hanging out with us for the rest of the weekend and giving input into the game we're making for our final. Turns out she's my competition for the Women in Games scholarship, but that's okay, I hope one of us wins it :)
On Sunday they announced the Women in Games scholarship, we both picked up the forms and asked our questions. Then we got to sit in on a few classes, we missed out on the flash gaming class, but the other classes we attended were great. There were prizes, none of which I won, but my friends won things, including several copies of Halo Reach and some angry birds plushies. I took a ton of notes and we threw ideas around for our game in between classes, we also met up at a Starbucks afterward and discussed it more.
All in all it was a great weekend. There were also things scheduled on Friday, however I could not attend as I unfortunately had a class.... :(
Well, I think that's about all for this post, so until later :P
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sketching is Required...
I'm not drawing as much as I used to as of late. School, homework, and just plain old work take up most of my time, and when I do have down time I'm not spending it sketching, I'm usually watching videos and goofing around on the internet or playing video games.
The most I seem to be stretching my drawing muscles is when I doodle on my notes in class, which is fun and useful but it's really not cutting it... hopefully my Life Drawing project will change this a little bit like Discovery did last term, but I feel like it's not enough. I'm seriously considering taking the Sketch a Day challenge; I mean, I have this blog right here that can easily be converted into a sketch blog, but I worry a bit I won't stick with it.
What I really want to do is a nice, shiny, completed artwork, but daily sketches would really be much more beneficial.
blahblahblahrantranrant
Anyhoo, another link! A wonderful little comic called: Knite
I love the style of this comic and the message, it's about a boy in china who flies kites with lights attached to try to put the stars back in the night sky, as the air is so polluted the stars cannot be seen. Once again I love the use of colour and it makes me fret about my own shortcomings in this area (but in a good way). It currently has 3 chapters and 2 Omakes. It is done as a flash file with some slight animation, which gives it a very cinematic feel, so awesome!
The most I seem to be stretching my drawing muscles is when I doodle on my notes in class, which is fun and useful but it's really not cutting it... hopefully my Life Drawing project will change this a little bit like Discovery did last term, but I feel like it's not enough. I'm seriously considering taking the Sketch a Day challenge; I mean, I have this blog right here that can easily be converted into a sketch blog, but I worry a bit I won't stick with it.
What I really want to do is a nice, shiny, completed artwork, but daily sketches would really be much more beneficial.
blahblahblahrantranrant
Anyhoo, another link! A wonderful little comic called: Knite
I love the style of this comic and the message, it's about a boy in china who flies kites with lights attached to try to put the stars back in the night sky, as the air is so polluted the stars cannot be seen. Once again I love the use of colour and it makes me fret about my own shortcomings in this area (but in a good way). It currently has 3 chapters and 2 Omakes. It is done as a flash file with some slight animation, which gives it a very cinematic feel, so awesome!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
And the Disconnected Number I Still Call...
Here are some of my most favourite poems.
First, my favourite poet: Shane Koyczan. He is a spoken word artist, so it's better to hear him perform the poems, my personal favourite of his is Atlantis:
Others that I like though are Move Pen Move (it starts out with another poem, so wait until after the lady reciting “Divine Sonnet X”/"Death be not Proud") and The Crickets Have Arthritis. Both are rather sad though, so be warned if you don't like bittersweet poems.
This one I discovered recently, it's called "Long Distance II" by Tony Harrison:
Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.
You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.
He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.
I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call.
The final stanza is my favourite.
And finally, this one is my absolute favourite for a long time, "The Old Astronomer to his Pupil" by Sarah Williams:
Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,
When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
We are working to completion, working on from then to now.
Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,
Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,
And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true,
And the obliquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.
But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn,
You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn,
What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and wiles;
What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles.
You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late,
But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate.
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
What, my boy, you are not weeping? You should save your eyes for sight;
You will need them, mine observer, yet for many another night.
I leave none but you, my pupil, unto whom my plans are known.
You "have none but me," you murmur, and I "leave you quite alone"?
Well then, kiss me, -- since my mother left her blessing on my brow,
There has been a something wanting in my nature until now;
I can dimly comprehend it, -- that I might have been more kind,
Might have cherished you more wisely, as the one I leave behind.
I "have never failed in kindness"? No, we lived too high for strife,
Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life;
But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still
To the service of our science: you will further it? you will!
There are certain calculations I should like to make with you,
To be sure that your deductions will be logical and true;
And remember, "Patience, Patience," is the watchword of a sage,
Not to-day nor yet to-morrow can complete a perfect age.
I have sown, like Tycho Brahe, that a greater man may reap;
But if none should do my reaping, 'twill disturb me in my sleep
So be careful and be faithful, though, like me, you leave no name;
See, my boy, that nothing turn you to the mere pursuit of fame.
I must say Good-bye, my pupil, for I cannot longer speak;
Draw the curtain back for Venus, ere my vision grows too weak:
It is strange the pearly planet should look red as fiery Mars,
God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars.
My favourite lines are "Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."
First, my favourite poet: Shane Koyczan. He is a spoken word artist, so it's better to hear him perform the poems, my personal favourite of his is Atlantis:
Others that I like though are Move Pen Move (it starts out with another poem, so wait until after the lady reciting “Divine Sonnet X”/"Death be not Proud") and The Crickets Have Arthritis. Both are rather sad though, so be warned if you don't like bittersweet poems.
This one I discovered recently, it's called "Long Distance II" by Tony Harrison:
Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.
You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.
He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.
I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call.
The final stanza is my favourite.
And finally, this one is my absolute favourite for a long time, "The Old Astronomer to his Pupil" by Sarah Williams:
Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,
When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
We are working to completion, working on from then to now.
Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,
Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,
And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true,
And the obliquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.
But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn,
You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn,
What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and wiles;
What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles.
You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late,
But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate.
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
What, my boy, you are not weeping? You should save your eyes for sight;
You will need them, mine observer, yet for many another night.
I leave none but you, my pupil, unto whom my plans are known.
You "have none but me," you murmur, and I "leave you quite alone"?
Well then, kiss me, -- since my mother left her blessing on my brow,
There has been a something wanting in my nature until now;
I can dimly comprehend it, -- that I might have been more kind,
Might have cherished you more wisely, as the one I leave behind.
I "have never failed in kindness"? No, we lived too high for strife,
Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life;
But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still
To the service of our science: you will further it? you will!
There are certain calculations I should like to make with you,
To be sure that your deductions will be logical and true;
And remember, "Patience, Patience," is the watchword of a sage,
Not to-day nor yet to-morrow can complete a perfect age.
I have sown, like Tycho Brahe, that a greater man may reap;
But if none should do my reaping, 'twill disturb me in my sleep
So be careful and be faithful, though, like me, you leave no name;
See, my boy, that nothing turn you to the mere pursuit of fame.
I must say Good-bye, my pupil, for I cannot longer speak;
Draw the curtain back for Venus, ere my vision grows too weak:
It is strange the pearly planet should look red as fiery Mars,
God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars.
My favourite lines are "Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Extra Credits
Wonderful little videos relating to the game industry and game design: Extra Credits
They raise some wonderful points, this one is particularly interesting, it looks at game design as a whole and what it takes to be a good designer. I also like their thoughts on choice in games.
I have my first Maya class today! Wheeee! 3d work! These are entirely new waters for me, happy happy!
They raise some wonderful points, this one is particularly interesting, it looks at game design as a whole and what it takes to be a good designer. I also like their thoughts on choice in games.
I have my first Maya class today! Wheeee! 3d work! These are entirely new waters for me, happy happy!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year!!!
Whoooo! 2011!!!
Time to bid a fond farewell to 2010, it was greater than I could have ever hoped. I hope that 2011 will be even better, it has certainly started off wonderfully with good company and wisdom from friends.
If I can get everything figured out for Game Design, this may just be the best year of my life yet :)
Time to bid a fond farewell to 2010, it was greater than I could have ever hoped. I hope that 2011 will be even better, it has certainly started off wonderfully with good company and wisdom from friends.
If I can get everything figured out for Game Design, this may just be the best year of my life yet :)
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