Personality Test

We talked about various personality traits with Mike today, focusing on what we as individuals like about ourselves and what it means to have the traits we do. One of the tests was a pick-one-of-two type test with one choice being well organised and up to date, while the other was do everything at once, not following schedule, etc. I chose the second choice in almost all categories, I am an introvert, don't follow any schedules, my desk is rarely neat, and I'm always doing different things.

I did another test that asked me to pick an image that resembled my opinion the most, in some cases it was an easy choice, but in a lot of them it didn't really make sense. At the end of this test however, I was given a list of traits that, because of my choices, I should have.

I suppose it is right, I try to combine things that shouldn't really go together and then do the same with the outcome hence the title of Alchemist. Below that is a long list of the traits which I mostly agree with, overall the tests worked well, I didn't go into them expecting an amazing outcome, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm especially happy with the level of Neuroticism, meaning I'm calm and emotionally stable, perhaps its because I can never be bothered to react to people, yeah lets go with that.

Job Roles in the VFX Industry

Animation Director/Supervisor
Animation Directors are responsible for the quality of the animation, for keeping it on brief and for delivering consistent performances by assigning, or casting, the appropriate Animators. The role of Animation Director may only exist on larger projects and is often combined with the Director role on smaller productions.

Concept Artist

Concept Artists work at the beginning of the pre-production. They are responsible for producing illustrations that are to represent a section of the film, be it a character or a environment. They work on illustrations throughout the shoot and may often be required to change and adapt their original ideas as filming progresses. Concept Artists work on things from big budget films that have great VFX to small animated episodic media.

Compositor

Compositor’s work at the end of production, responsible for constructing the final image by combining layers of previously created material. They combine all the elements to create the final image.
To achieve this they enhance the lighting, match blacks and other colour levels, add grain where required

Digital Preparation Artist

Paint/Prep Artists are responsible for rig removal tasks, painting out markers, wires and rigging before the shot is moved on. They must make sure all the. The work of a Paint/Prep Artist is likely to be reviewed by a VFX Supervisor, often one frame at a time, and compared back to the original plate on a cinema screen.

Layout Artist (3D computer animation)

Layout Artists break down the 2D storyboards into 3D shots by using production designs and models as a reference to build locations as well as major props. They are responsible for staging every shot and changing the position of the cameras.

Lightning Technical Director

A Lighting Technical Director or ‘Lighter’ is responsible for ensuring that there is consistency in lighting, colour balance and colour to fit the mood within the scenes. Lighters also create the lighting that adds atmosphere to a scene, increasing the realism, tone and depth as well as clarifying the location.

Match Move Artist

Match Move Artists position the tracking points in live action shots and uses those
tracking points in order to create a CG scene with realistic movement. The information they provide enables the CG geometry to fit more accurately and convincingly to the live action plates so that everything in the scene feels realistic and as if it belongs there.

Matte Painter

A Matte Painter is responsible for creating virtual backgrounds used in order to either replace or enhance live action photographed plates. The artist works with stills taken from live action photography, digital still photography, rendered CG elements and digital paint to create believable ‘environments’ that are seamlessly integrated into the film by compositing artists.

Roto Artist

Roto Artists trace the areas of live action frames where computer graphics will overlap or interact with live images. This creates clear areas (mattes) within the frame to allow all elements of the scene to be layered convincingly. This enables Compositors to combine all the various elements accurately.

VFX Producer

As the VFX industry continues to grow, the role of the Producer is becoming more and more necessary to a working studio. A good Producer effectively manages the project, making sure everyone is working to a deadline and is working correctly, while also making sure the project is staying within budget and project is profitable.

VFX Supervisor

VFX Supervisors are the leaders of a team of artists in the visual effects studio. They are responsible for ensuring the creative aims of a director or producer are met. They need to maintain a good relationship with their own artists, the editor and the client to ensure the end result is exactly as intended.
Technical Director
A Technical Director is a somewhat broad term for a range of disciplines within VFX. Generically, they are in charge of running simulations and programs in order to create desired effects, but the science and artistry involved means that nearly all Technical Directors are very specialised. For example, a Groom Technical Director would be responsible for generating realistic hair and fur.

Runner

A Runner in a VFX studio will find that a lot of their job relies on making sure the site itself remains operational and the atmosphere remains positive. Whether this is acting as a messenger between two departments, gathering resources for an artist or simply making a cup of tea, the Runner is an integral part of any studio.
Texture Artist
The texture artist’s main duty is to create photo-realistic textures for mapping onto 3D objects. These textures will often be created from scratch, but may also be created from existing materials. Familiarity with the requisite software is required, as well as familiarity with the process of UV mapping.

Rigger

A VFX Rigger is responsible for creating the “skeleton” of a 3D model, making sure all the joints work correctly and accurately so the animators can start to position the models the way they want to.

Runner

A Runner in a VFX studio will find that a lot of their job relies on making sure the site itself remains operational and the atmosphere remains positive. Whether this is acting as a messenger between two departments, gathering resources for an artist or simply making a cup of tea, the Runner is an integral part of any studio.

Modeller

Modellers build 3D models of everything that is needed for a CGI project, usually things that are impossible to make in real life, such as monsters and spaceships. The models they produce need to meet the creative requirements of the Production Designer, Art Director and/or client.

Environment Types for Car Game

Finishing the Exams has opened up Ant's lesson for anew project, we were asked to come up with ideas that are reasonable for our skill level, but that also has enough content for everyone to help out with, I imagine we'll talk about our ideas tomorrow and finalize everything, a few of us have thought about doing a Mario Kart-like game. A racing game like this allows for limitless possibilities, levels, cars, power ups, and countless models, at this point we might not actually be making this game, however with almost half the class happy with the idea I'm hoping that we do.

I thought I could post about the numerous environments we could use for inspiration, since we don't really have a story to go off the setting can literally be anywhere in the universe, or even in some other universe.

1: Cliffside Road: A makeshift racetrack thats loosely held onto the side of a mountain, with tunnels cutting in and out of the rock face. Loose wooden planks can easily lead to a quick death in the swirling waves below. I think this would be a fun level to both make and play, we can really focus on the verticality.

 2: Saturn's Rings: Chaos in space, you drive around the rings of saturn as they spin out of control, trying to avoid meteorites and stray shuttles. Only the best drivers will survive the madness as asteroid paths are created and destroyed below your vehicle, with gravity both aiding and hurting your journey.

3: Volcano Lane: You play in an underground mine area filled with lava, lanes will sink and rise through the magma cutting off shortcuts along the way. The finishing line is set at the mouth of the volcano, which you fly through into the sky before plummeting back into the level.

There are so many other level ideas that we could incorporate into the game, each being as mad as the last, it's a project that everyone can be apart of thanks to the vast array of required assets, it should hopefully come out well, especially with the amount of time we'll have put into it.

The second generation of Game Consoles

We were set the task of researching the 8 generations of game consoles, including popular games, and sales figures. Our table was set generations 2 and 6, I decided against researching about the 6th generation despite it including some of the best gaming titles of all time, as well as the greatest console of all time, (my opinion) the ps2.

The 2nd generation is interesting though, with unknown manufactures popping up to throw their ideas into the mix, many attempting to re-create Atari's success, with the 2600 selling roughly 25 million units, and 115 million games. I made an image showing the main consoles and how they did.

 
It was nicknamed the 'Golden Age' for a reason, with titles such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Asteroids all coming through in this generation, games will never have an impact like these titles these days.

Image creations and Updates

Exams are over, thank you lord, anyway now that they're finished I can get back to focussing on projects and I can get some posts out about them. Our group environment should really pick up the pace now, I'm really looking forward to getting into it.

As for how I think I did in the exams I'm optimistic, they really weren't easy and since two of them were on programming I'm really not expecting to be the best. Staying positive though, I tried my best and thats all I can do, no need to overthink it.

Enough on the exams, I've started making the vinyl again and I'm really enjoying doing it. They're things I can just sit down and not really stress about for a few minutes while listening to some music, and since they aren't based on anything I can just do whatever.

They vary only slightly from one another... The first one was fairly simple, I just had to find a basic image of the Mona Lisa and then cut out the background, I decided to just add things that looked odd and went with it, the outcome is decent? Nothing too good, but I really wasn't expecting a masterpiece from the get-go. The second piece again uses an image from Google that has the background removed, I then changed the overlay to match the text and this was the outcome, all that was needed was a alternate-rock like name and a title for the image to come together.

My 2d game has hit a bump in the road, me being me, I left it on a usb that has taken a knock and wont work on my computer, im hoping to get it fixed soon, but if not I'll start the game again. Luckily I only had the core mechanics down, so re-doing them shouldn't be a big problem.

Top Down game #1

I've never fully invested in a Unity project since the the beginning of the course, I always get an idea, spend hours/days doing loads of work, then lose interest and never open the project again... then repeat. Anyway I want to stick to this project until I actually get a finished game, my idea might change halfway through, but I'll not start again, just change what I have.

My idea is to make a top down zombie survival game that uses similar movement and weapon mechanics to Hotline Miami. I want to lineament a timer that counts how long a player has lived for, as well as a leaderboard.

Despite the game being somewhat inspired by Hotline Miami, the art style bares no resemblance, I'm trying to keep this a code-heavy game, so I really dont want to get carried away with making assets that are really detailed.

So far I have a nice movement system in place where the player model looks towards the mouse cursor and moves using the W, A, S, D. And in a few days I should have a lot more.

The only issue I have is the time I have over the weekend, or rather the lack of time I have. I'll make some progress with this, but maybe not enough for a blog. With exams coming up next Tuesday, most of my time is going towards revision. I'll get something out before then, whether it be a full blog on the game, or a small post about it on an update blog.

random art pieces

I spent the afternoon on Photoshop using the graphics tablets and decided to just make some random images. The first image is a mock-up of Slenderman, a famous creepypasta that had a game made after him, although I'm not a huge fan of the outcome, it's what I expected for the time I put into it.

I then put the tablet aside and started making some random patterns, I started over a few times before I reached a decent stage where I could visualise the final product, the pattern was simple, draw a shape, (preferably a triangle or quadrilateral) and then draw a line joining near each corner. Below is the outcome, and I really like it, it looks like it has some real depth and that the shapes are woven in and out of one another.

I'm really hoping to get a graphics tablet at home so I can get some more art pieces made, it helps a fair amount with concept art and seeing if an object/character looks good enough to fit into a project.

Overlays in Video Editing

Gaming channels on Youtube all seem to share one feature, albeit with different styles and colour, I'm talking about overlays and Photoshop assets positioned a layer above the gameplay. It's popular on Twitch as well, with the majority of 'popular' streamers using overlays around their face-cam, and in areas that don't obstruct the view of the game.

Making an overlay such as this isn't really difficult at all, you simply need to have Photoshop/a program similar to Photoshop, and a video editing program, (I use both Sony Vegas, and After Effects).

I decided to make a simple version as an example, something that covers the right hand corner of the screen and displays text.

First off create a new image that's resolution matches the recording, (1980 x 1080 in my case).

Then create something that you like in the position that you'd like it to sit in the final product, for mine I made it it the right top corner.

Then remove the background and save it as a new image, make sure you save it as a PNG, or a similar format so the background isn't generated.

Lastly open the PNG image in a video editing program and it should already be set to the correct position.

That's it, you can do plenty of things with this method, I'm going to try and make an intro using the text tool in photoshop then I'll use Sony Vegas' 'FX' tools to make the transitions, if it looks good enough I'll post about it.

Iron Giant model

I'd finished my essay before Matty's lesson today, so I had four hours to do whatever as long as I could use it in my portfolio. I hadn't made a really detailed model in a while, so I decided to start making something. I looked around google for inspiration when I stumbled upon this:

The iron giant worked so well with what I wanted to do, it's a robot which allows me to change faces and edges to match my idea, it goes with my other models such as, codsworth, and r2d2, and finally its a challenge. I've never gotten far with making models that have legs/feet, I'd always given up until this point. I decided that no matter how difficult it was, I'd get it finished.

Overall I am happy with it, it could look better with practice, however for my first attempt its good, I thought it would be difficult to texture, but to be honest I'll only need to add a material to the eyes, and stomach area.

I'll give it a go, and hopefully in the next few days I'll have an update to post.

My Dream Job

My dream job would be a 3d modeler/artist working in the games industry. I've always enjoyed modelling ever since I started the course, given the chance I would really enjoy working at a company like Bethesda. I like the idea of modelling both fantasy buildings and weapons, also I'd like to make some more run-down apocalypse-like architecture in the Fallout franchise.

I enjoy making concept art as well, I'm fairly sure that I'd have to make some sketches before making the final model.

I'd chose Bethesda over other developers because of the freedom I'd get, Bethesda always push the boat out when it comes to ideas, the worst thing would be having to constantly model similar models for similar environments time and time again.

Also Bethesda work with numerous smaller development teams, and allow them to use their equipment, so a fair few unique ideas come through all the time.

Overall there are many varying development teams that I'd like to work for, however Bethesda sit atop the pile, I enjoy their games the most and really like making assets similar/based of games they've developed.

New Environment + Model!

A group of us have decided to start a new environment based off Monteriggioni which is a commune in the province of Sienna in Tuscany. Famous for its large villa used in Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, we thought that it would be a good idea to put all of our work together, there's 5 of us, me, Lee, Kyle, Finley, and Cameron, but more people may join in the future. Here's the area we are using as inspiration.

We're all chipping in to make different models, and some of us are working on the environment surrounding the city, and are still unsure on the engine. At this point we have a few models, I'm sure if you go and check the others' blogs they might have showcased them.

I will be making the houses and buildings around the city, not the villa itself, but the smaller peaked-roofed shacks. I'll most likely start on other models as well in the upcoming days.

Here is the building I have made so far.

I've already unrwapped it and will start texturing tonight.

Updates

Apologies for not posting recently, I've had some issues that took over for a few days.

I've spent the past week or so working on my art essay and working on rather dull projects, I've made a few models and photoshop images, but they're really not worth posting about. Along with the art essay I've been revising some maths to prepare for the exams.

I've put some of my projects on pause for the mean time and will return to them shortly, I'll post about them next week when I make some real progress. I still have a horror game that is coming along well, similarly I have a video project that's reaching it's final stages.

I'll get back to regular posting as soon as I can.