...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?
Showing posts with label VFS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VFS. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
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.
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
Friday, December 24, 2010
Videos
A couple of Videos from term 3 at VFS:
My After Effects Final...
And my Classical Animation Final (starring 2 of my Discovery Monsters)
Term 3 is over, Christmas Break! :D
My After Effects Final...
And my Classical Animation Final (starring 2 of my Discovery Monsters)
Term 3 is over, Christmas Break! :D
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Squash and Stretch
Here are a couple of the animations I have done so far for my Classical Animation class at VFS. The 2 were class assignments, I did 2 more that were just things I did to pass the time, but it takes forever for these to upload so I'll post those later maybe... >.>
I love this class, and I love the classroom! I wish I had one of the desks that they have there... ;^;
I love this class, and I love the classroom! I wish I had one of the desks that they have there... ;^;
Friday, November 5, 2010
Discovery Project
So I suppose it's time I posted something a bit more substantial than just links to things that inspire me, so I'm gonna talk about my discovery project.
This term we are required to create something; anything we wish in any medium we wish, we can use it as a precursor to our final project or simply as an opportunity to explore working in a field we haven't before.
Though I came to Foundations uncertain of where I wanted to end up (or even if I would be able to attend VFS for another year) I've pretty much set my sights on Game Design now. So, while I don't know if this will ultimately tie into my final project, I have decided to head in that direction for my discovery project.
Since one of my most favourite things to do in the whole wide world is draw weird monstery creatures, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to design creatures for a mock video game, if I have time I may do more and develop the game world a bit, but my main focus is going to be on the monsters.
At first I was thinking of picking different environments (jungle, aquatic, mountains, plains) and developing a creature for each one, researching animals from each environment to create believable monsters. However I've decided to instead pick just one environment and design creatures for that one environment.
So I've picked desert as my choice. I'm thinking of designing a couple of domestic creatures and some wild creatures.
For the domestic creatures:
A Pack animal - similar in role to an ox or donkey, something that would pull wagons and such
Livestock - right now I'm thinking something sheeplike, though I might move more towards a goatlike design since all that wool in the desert just seems... silly to me
A Herding Animal - Think along the lines of a sheepdog, but it'd be closer to a jackal or desert fox. these would keep the aforementioned livestock in check
For the wild creatures... I'm not sure what I'll do yet, probably a couple of smaller monsters an maybe one bigger one, since these are the things that would be fought for exp.
Yeah... I'm going more RPG with this, probably fantasy as well, but not high fantasy like Dragon Age, something more along the lines of Monster Hunter.
I could also design monsters geared towards different game genres... but I dunno, I kind of prefer the idea of thinking of one game concept and thinking of monsters to fit into that single game world.
This term we are required to create something; anything we wish in any medium we wish, we can use it as a precursor to our final project or simply as an opportunity to explore working in a field we haven't before.
Though I came to Foundations uncertain of where I wanted to end up (or even if I would be able to attend VFS for another year) I've pretty much set my sights on Game Design now. So, while I don't know if this will ultimately tie into my final project, I have decided to head in that direction for my discovery project.
Since one of my most favourite things to do in the whole wide world is draw weird monstery creatures, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to design creatures for a mock video game, if I have time I may do more and develop the game world a bit, but my main focus is going to be on the monsters.
At first I was thinking of picking different environments (jungle, aquatic, mountains, plains) and developing a creature for each one, researching animals from each environment to create believable monsters. However I've decided to instead pick just one environment and design creatures for that one environment.
So I've picked desert as my choice. I'm thinking of designing a couple of domestic creatures and some wild creatures.
For the domestic creatures:
A Pack animal - similar in role to an ox or donkey, something that would pull wagons and such
Livestock - right now I'm thinking something sheeplike, though I might move more towards a goatlike design since all that wool in the desert just seems... silly to me
A Herding Animal - Think along the lines of a sheepdog, but it'd be closer to a jackal or desert fox. these would keep the aforementioned livestock in check
For the wild creatures... I'm not sure what I'll do yet, probably a couple of smaller monsters an maybe one bigger one, since these are the things that would be fought for exp.
Yeah... I'm going more RPG with this, probably fantasy as well, but not high fantasy like Dragon Age, something more along the lines of Monster Hunter.
I could also design monsters geared towards different game genres... but I dunno, I kind of prefer the idea of thinking of one game concept and thinking of monsters to fit into that single game world.
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