Reflection on year one, and ambition for year two

So here we are back after summer and I have to say that it has flew by. Good to be back though. I'm exited to get my teeth stuck into this year. The first year, for me was very enjoyable, keeping on top of work was a little tricky (mainly forgetting to post on my blog). That said after all the tears and frustrations I'm actually proud of all my work. Threes definitely room for improvements. But I feel I have the ability to recognise my mistakes and I will be able to avoid them this year. My biggest weakness are my drawing skills which I hope to improve upon in my second year, but 3D is where my heart is. I love it and I can't get enough of it. I feel my ability with 3D grew a lot last year. I learnt a lot of things very quickly that I may have not found so easy to understand withought Heathers advise. This has not only improved my strengths and identify my weaknesses, but it has helped improve my confidence. The upmost biggest fear for me was knowing that I have low confidence and that stops me from wanting to do work out of pure fear of failing miserably. But as I do more and more work, I more increasingly get things working for me, I see myself improving more and more.
So how can I improve on this in year 2? I just need to keep focus! The odd time I've (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) sat around thinking I'm never going to make it to the end with a skill set that developers will consider to be worthy of employment. I think I need one of them posters with the cat hanging from the tree. maybe I'm being hard on myself, but I am scared about facing this "lull" I've heard Mike talk about. I think it will hit me if not all of us at some point. And ever the optimist, I hope it will make me into a better person.
A big thing playing on my mind is what path in the industry to follow. I like both Character and Environment design. But recently and over the summer I saw pattern with the work I set myself and the tutorials I was searching for. They were all to do with characters. I've been playing around with Zbrush and I like to think I'm getting better each time I use it. I've been looking into a lot of anatomy for characters so I hope any I make this year will be heading in the right direction. I know we have got a group project coming up and although I've played with the UDK before I'm going to wait till then and focus on more character work. Then after that I will have a better idea of what path I may consider following in my final year.

Feedback!

Not to be lazy with this post but there's only relay a couple of points I feel I can make as to enhance the course. First of all I think this would not only benefit the students, but also Heather. When she gives us tutorials and demonstrations it, it should be real easy to record the session with screen capture (I know a realy cool FREE one to use) software, and record your voice with a mic that way we can easterly go back and watch it again at our convenience. This would also save Heather the job of having to create a PDF to upload to the god awful blackboard.

My other point is, us students love to help each other and share tips and tricks, but there should be a place for students to share there findings as face book dose not facilitate this. Although face book does it's job showcasing work, I thought we should set up a wiki for the course posting links to artists and tutorial etc.

Anyway that's my two sense. That aside I've really enjoyed my first year and cant wait so start back in September.

GDC 2010

With so many things to read on the GDC site, its hard to pick just one to talk about. The one thing I found that interested me the most however, was a talk about EA's success with Battlefield 1943. Using only 15 of the original developer of the franchise they were given the task to develop a game that was low cost and easy to develop. A game to fill the gap between the downtime of other titles from the developers.

The key top the game success was it simplicity. It was diluted that much that only the best things about the franchise were left. Mainly, the game play! Developers had key elements that they wanted to achieve for the game such as "make the game as long as resources last" and “simply revisit wake island” are just some examples. Perhaps the best outcome of the game, and one that perhaps benefited from its downloadable nature on consoles, was the fact that it was so easy to just pick up and play. There was no learning curve but it was difficult to master. There was no need for medics as health replenished over time and no need for ammo runs back to base and ammo replenished too. Vehicles were simplified to either be fast for transport of slow for seizing areas and defending. You were able to take the the sky's to give cover to your team-mates,but run the risk of being shot down by enemy flak cannons that were scattered around capture points. Everything made sense and was easy to understand, making it easy to concentrate on what really mattered... playing the game! Its a shame it never saw a release on the PC but it would have taken a hell of a lot more testing and developing to run on varied machines. I don't hate DICE for this as they created such a perfect piece to the battlefield puzzle, its a nice game to play now and again without having to take it to seriously. There's a valuable lesson to be learned from this, it just goes to show that there is always room for improvement and DICE have made a perfect example.

Where do you want to go, and how do you get there?

This is the million dollar question for me and one I've been asking myself constantly since before I started the course. For me it didn't make sense trying to learn this stuff by myself. It was impossible to have work alongside this. If I didn't dedicate my time to this it I would lose interest and treat it no more than a hobby. Being here at uni and living it makes me want to do it more and more. I've learnt so much in the this first year than I never would have been able to do at home. Some questions just cant be answered online. I know I have the skills to be a good 3d artist I just need to hone them and going to uni gives me that chance. Plus it nice to finally talk to people that share an interest in this as non of the people back home have any clue what I am talking about. By the end of the course I should have enhanced my abilities as a game designer, hopefully to a standard that the games industry will recognise and be willing to give me a chance to show them how good and how dedicated I am. I hope to speak to more people within the industry before the end of the course as this will help not only understand the industry better, but hopefully open new doors and opportunities when finding my dream job. Its scary hearing how hard the industry can be but I hope in the next couple of years our efforts and talents will be sort after more.

Creativity revisited

With the course now allowing us to show of our creative abilities more than when we started the course through our most recent projects. I'm hoping that I can find more to say about how my creativity is developing and what influences I've had since the start of this course. As the year is coming to an end I find myself wanting to explore more and more techniques and try more advance projects especially in 3d. I love 3d more than anything else and quite happily spend hours trawling the internet for new tutorials and techniques to try out. Its really satisfying to find so many great resources on the web to help fuel my creativity.

One thing that I think I have made more of an improvement on, is my confidence. In turn I believe this is the key to unlocking your creative mind. Believing that what you have created may not satisfy everyone's tastes but knowing in yourself that its the right path to take. It takes a lot of confidence to convince yourself that your making the right decision.. If we create something that's not quite what we had in our heads and have the creative mind to confidently see the problem areas as to why its wrong, only then can we rectify the mistakes and learn from them.

On the other hand imagineering is something (that like most other students) I seem to be having trouble with. The hardest part is to follow a theme but avoid obvious clenches at the same time. Striving to be original is maybe one of the most important things an artist creative side can be. I hate seeing people especially in advertising, ripping off other people ideas that they may have seen in movies or videos etc. By all means use it as a base to kick-start your own creativity but don't steal the idea outright, were is the fun in that?

Life Changing or Career Building?

With the game industry ever changing to keep up with the advances of technology, it's not surprising that it's hard to maintain a course structure that can keep up to date with the industry. The core skills are what's important to learn and that goes for any artist in any industry. Learning skills that can be carried and worked into different carers is the best way for people without work experience. My biggest fear is why would anyone employ someone fresh out of university when there likely to have interviewed people who already have lots of experience working in the industry. The only thing I can say to that is I just hope developers appreciate young talent and fresh thinking and creativity that maybe older generations don't see or haven't come into contact with. The ability to be original had a lot to do with things that we come into contact with and the way we see the world through our own eyes. That's why I feel that courses like these are important for the industry because it so hard to find people that share a common interest. Not just in playing games, but also really appreciating how there made.

Sound in Games

Sound play's a vital role in games these days, and is created by some of the best composer's in the world. Recently for example the blockbuster best selling game to date, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 had only bloody Oscar winning composer Hans Zimmer! Who's worked for big name film titles like The Dark Knight and Pirates of the Caribbean. Every aspect of a game these days is pushed to it's best ability to achieve the maximum entertainment experience possible. As budding game developers' were aware of the processes involved in creating concepts to achieve the look and style of a games appearance, from characters and vehicles, to environments and mood. But what about sound. That's why I was pleased to find out that the industry seems to be broadening its concepting ethics into pitching game ideas not only using visual, but also musical forms. So basically it can range from small sound to scores to find an overall sonic to a game, that fits with its style. The pieces never have to be finished because there just concepts but generally they go on to become final works that will be incorporated into the game. I'm a fan of an upcoming game that was originally a mod for half life 1. They release news weekly every Friday showing there progress in a very “back stage” kind of way, and in a recent post they showcased a mixture of sounds re-enforcing this very topic. It would be best to have a look for yourself so here's the link http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/news/2010/2/friday_update_build_137_and_sound_montages I think this is a very good way to show the direction the sound is going, and I believe its just as important as any other part of the game.

I'm trying to think of past game experiences that have evoked emotion from the sound and one springs to mind that I feel deserves a mention. As I've mentioned before I played Medal of Honor Allied Assault. Its was one of the first franchises to start of the whole first person period, WW2 series of gaming and they did a remarkable job. They paid a lot of attention to detail to make you feel apart of world war. Might be best known for it Normandy Omaha beach landing that's seen also in the film Saving Private Ryan. The sound effect were top notch but it was the score that did it for me. As I have great respect for the soldiers who fought in world war 2 and have a very big interest in it, this soundtrack I felt captured a good emotion for the war and to be honest it made me want to cry. I even copied it to CD to listen to it. Composed by Michael Giacchino who has done work movies, television series. His most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, and Alias and films such as Mission: Impossible III, The Incredibles, Star Trek and Up, for which he won an Academy Award. In my opinion this is the best score in any game ever made and I never tire of listening to it.