Second Year Overview

Well I've reached the end of my second year... my thoughts? Pretty hectic, especially for such a short period of time. Gosh! it's amazing to see how much I've done in the past few months and how much I've improved overall.

Where to Now...?

I remember how I wasn't exactly sure where I want be last year, now that time has passed since I've gotten a clearer idea where I hope to go. Though there's still some questionable thoughts, there's no reason pass them off as possible directions that I might take in the future.

Critcal Choice Mk. II

Yet another topic that has to be repeated. I'll be quite honest, there's not much more I can add in terms of opinion as I haven't experienced what it's like to work at a game company. This is probably going to end up being a revised version of the original post.

Third Time...

Seriously Mike... creativity again? Like you said, we are creative people because we are constantly creating things but that's no reason for making us repeat this topic again. Bleh! I have a feeling that I'm going to end up repeating whatever I talked about in the previous entries, but better get this over and done with.

Step Right In...

It's no secret, getting a job at a game company and then securing it for as long as you can is quite challenging. The game industry is still young and volatile, it's difficult to say who's gonna go bust or who's gonna stay to work on the next project. I have to admit I'm kind of nervous, it's a crazy world out I there's no telling what might happen to me.

Full Control

What makes video games so very special compared to other forms of media is that they allow viewers to interact with them. The ability to control the actions of characters or shape the world around always made video games more entertaining than films to me personally, and the way we do this is through all sorts of input devices.

You Hear That?

Hmmm... Seeing that the last time I covered the topic of audio in game primarily on game music guess it would be better to talk about sound effects this time round. Interesting finds as I did my research into this topic which includes some videos which will hopefully give everyone a idea what sound design is about.

Engines are Go

Having worked on UDK for several months for our group project has certainly taught me this: some engines can be a bitch and you'll just have to be patient with them. My experience with UDK was pretty unpleasant it really comes to show what it really takes to be a game developer.

Compiling and Documenting

Haha... the boring part of being a game artist. Honestly I'm not too thrilled that documenting of all the planning and progress made on a project has to be done. Takes me back to my GCSE days when writing reports after reports for every friggin' project I had to do. The practical part of the projects: Good Fun, writing stuff: Boo...

Constructing the Stage to Play

 To be a good level designer ain't easy. Based on my experience on various games that have level building features such as Age of Empires II and LittleBigPlanet it's easy to come up with an idea that sounds good to you, but when you build it and then publicly release to for others to play those players may not share the opinion.

Do Ya See What I'm Trying to Show?

What makes a piece of visual media feel right? Take the above painting by Kandinsky for example, despite it being a compilation of random shapes and lines why it that I feel comfortable with it? Visual composition is the way in which an artist arranges things in their choice of media, using their own judgement to determine whether their composition looks right and in turn allows viewers to share the same thought. 

Planning Ahead - The Way of the Concept Artist

Time to repeat the mantra: Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. For some time now I have always been told to plan my approach before tackling any task or assignment, be it an essay or an art project. The planning procedure is often taxing and may seem to be counter-productive especially if one spends too much time doing so without producing a good final product. Should anyone find themselves to be in that kind of situation then they are doing it wrong. It takes good planning to get good results and one has to be wary of what they're doing to ensure that they don't use all of their time working on one thing and then ignoring others.

Making Progress

It sure has been a while since my last post. I managed to pass the first year and have moved into the second year of my course. A few of us have failed to move on, about 15 I believe, which is quite a large percentage of us and it's still expected that a number of us won't make it past the second year. A scary thought indeed, especially when a couple of guys who I personally thought would make it through the first year failed to do so. Comes to show that this course won't accept slackers of any kind.

Overall Impressions Pt. 2

Okay, having revised the previous blog about my impressions of the course I admit I was being fairly negative the first time round so I decided to have another stab, with more positive things to say.

Overall Impressions

Hoo boy, where to begin... Time sure has flown by quickly, it's scary seeing how much work I have covered during the course. What surprised me was not the amount I have done but by how much I have improved. Seriously... I have learnt so much it bothers me, considering how I didn't progress very far in Art during 6th Form.

The Upcoming GDC

Hoho, the event starts tomorrow... how exciting. With so much happening in such a short length of time it's hard to choose a particular part of the event to pay close attention to. Usually I tend to look out for unannounced titles which are then announced at GDC, especially at the indie development sector since a lot of hidden gems can be found there. Besides unannounced titles there's also the likely event of learning about a new piece of hardware, though if it turns out to be something like the PSP-GO I'm going to end up eating my leg in frustration.

A Glimpse Into the Future

 I'll be honest, I have no clear vision of what I'm going to do after leaving university. To me the future is clouded and unpredictable, anything could happen and at the moment I'm not fully prepared to tackle it.

Creativity... Again?

It appears that I have go over the topic of creativity once more. Well... having had a few lectures about the topic with Mike I guess there is room for changes on what we understand about creativity.

Crictical Choice

Trying hard to catch up with the outstanding blog posts... Anyway this post is going over the difficult subject matter of deciding over two types of individuals. "Some game companies want highly trained graduate artists and programmers. Some claim they really prefer creative individuals with a good Liberal Arts background."

Music to my Ears

Sorry, it took a while to get everything sorted out for this blog post. Anyway, this week I will going over music used in video games so prepare yourself and enjoy listening to all the tunes I worked so hard to get up and running.