Mclean's Campaign

critique

2009-10-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

excuse the extreme roughness of this paintover, main thing i noticed was that the sky took only 6% of the image, in life it takes up 60% of your view. another thing is the statues would be silhouettes like the man because the strength of the light and shadows same goes for the foreground rocks

Bust

2009-09-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

After a chat with dan i now feel doing a full character for both transformations would be cool but i did a bust any, didnt take too long but heres the result.

Mercenary update

2009-09-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

Texturing is up to 30%.

mercenary

2009-09-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

no rest for the wicked, really disapointed on how my black adam turned out so im gonna take my time on my mercenary, spent yesterday making the mesh best as possible!, heres it with just normals in marmoset.

finished comicon

2009-08-31T13:55:00.001-07:00

ahh panic

2009-08-31T10:36:00.000-07:00

hours from the deadline for comicon and im really struggling, i got hit with strange nausea i think you get from lookin at crap monitors which put me off of comission for a bit an hour ago, just finishing texturing, dont have time to rig *sad face* but ill try my best at presentation.

anatomy correction

2009-08-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

little anatomy correction!

sculpt black adam

2009-08-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

sculpt is done going to re-topo now, shouldnt take long, i dont have time to rig (again) but i really need to pose him so my presentation looks nice any ideas for quick fixes to make him look natural/posed?

mercenary update

2009-08-10T15:37:00.001-07:00

this is it with just normals and speculars on no AO/diffuse. currently at 2603 tris.

mercenary update

2009-08-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

baked the trousers now, need to add the pockets and kneepads and thats the bottom half done!

Comicon Update

2009-08-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

finished the head for my comicon entry, just going to add another subtool for his hair, i want it for be semi-stylised like the superman movies, clark kent style with a touch of vegeta from dbz

Topology

2009-08-05T19:55:00.001-07:00

heres the wireframe for those who are interested, just over 1,300 tris

Mercenary Bake

2009-08-05T19:45:00.003-07:00

first bake for this character and it went awesome, really look foward to texturing this bad boy, only the chest so far!

Mecenary finished

2009-08-05T16:09:00.001-07:00

thats it ive done, 40 hours of sculpting is over.....3 nine inch nail, 4 limp bizkit albums later im calling it a day (unless i recieve valuable crit) moving onto topology, god knows how im gonna do that, the laptop is struggling as it is (wieghs in at 22 million quads)

Wooly JUMPER!

2009-08-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

added a lovely sas jumper to my mercenary, he knows good threads when he sees one

Painting

2009-08-02T09:45:00.001-07:00

a quick 3 hour painting of a general, kinda wanted to see the difference between my first general i did 4 months ago and this one, i felt this one is better and it took a third of the time.

BLACKADAM REDUX

2009-08-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

After gazing upon marcus dublin's elektra for comicon as mentioned before i felt mine was becoming inadaquete and fast, i didnt feel it was much to do with my sculpting ability but more the design, so to make up for my ok sculpting skills i had to have a solid design, a black adam thats so inspiring it looks like a winner from just a sketch, so im in the process of re-designing him as i would invision him, if a man can beat superman hes got to look like he can not just a man in black spandex!

mercenary update

2009-08-01T06:22:00.000-07:00

this is it for this character for a while i need to concentrate on comicon, just saw marcus dublin's entry it looks pro hes almost finished god dammit!

Finished trousers

2009-07-31T12:05:00.001-07:00

finished my mercenary's trousers today...YAYY

Comicon Update

2009-07-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

Black adam update. finished ears and did a little paintover to show some design!

Black Adam

2009-07-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

COMICON REDIT

2009-07-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well i tried judge dredd out for the first week and its worn off, i didnt scream comic book hero enough for me so im putting him to the side as just a study and correct it later. im moving onto a different character, one so bad ass superman pissed in the pants when he saw his silhouette on the horizon, one so evil batman broke his own wings and jumped off a cliff. BLACK ADAM!

after seeing mojette's harry sculpt: http://mojette.deviantart.com/art/Harry-T-stance-2-94797637 i really wanted to mimick it, so i did a study of it and painted some black adam awesomeness on it.

CLOSE UPS

2009-07-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

Mecernary

2009-07-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

Went back to my Mercenary sculpt for today and finished his head as it was bothering me!

COMICON UPDATE

2009-07-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Newest sculpt, its like my 5th attempt at his head, im gonna just try and carry on with this one see if i can correct it, add some teeth and eyeballs.

COMICON

2009-07-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

Im more excited about this one than i was dominance war to be honest with you, until yesterday though ive been abit down about it, getting alot of opinions of people that they dont like my idea, i understand that i suppose if i get it wrong its just gonna be pure shite but i like being the underdog trying to make the impossible possible. Neway time to show you a sculpt/sketch, ive chosen judge dredd but in modern times, hes gonna be a little like a swat guy but think the punisher with lots of attitude and judge dredd style!

Back to Hell........angels model

2009-07-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

Now that i decided i felt refreshed from taking a break from doing the hells angel ive decided to take it head on this weekend and get it down so i can move on to the next project. heres what i did today.

Painting

2009-07-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

Did a Painting Lecture/tutorial today with a man called jeremy lipking whos an award artist for portraits of his wife usually, went through his step by step video which i found great and i even understood some of the terminology!, well anyway this was the result:

Mercenary Update

2009-07-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Latest update on my latest character!, dont worry about the hangs their just there for positioning, going to give him gloves a bomb vest and a t-shirt!

2009-07-02T11:11:00.001-07:00

A little update of work done from the past 24 hours, Would of posted sooner but just got back from transformers 2 the IMAX experience, yea it was jaw dropping even the 3rd time but upsettingly no extra footage like i thought they'd be, i think its just 10 minutes of the same footage but shot with a bigger camera that only the imax can handle which was devastator's transformation, it did seem more clear and not so chaotic i suppose. CG is off the wall for this movie....poor cgi artists, they had to accomodate for sands, blistering heat and rays of light constantly, i heard they have to be on set during all the filming (in egypt) and then go back to the labs (USA) and spend 6 weeks+ building one single decepticon.....i hope they got paid a million for that.

Update

2009-07-01T14:42:00.001-07:00

Got some great crit from heather and chris (previous 3rd year) for my hells angel project, but i think i just need to chill from it for a couple of days, so im making a mercenary till the weekend, spent 8 hours on the boots, woops.

*update

2009-06-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

heres the jeans so far, gave him a trasformers belt buckles. used a new technique for this, i overlayed the jeans texture over the top of my sculpt normals.

The last one i promise

2009-06-26T18:46:00.001-07:00

i swear this is the last shot of my hells angel head ill post, im posting way too much of it. well its defo done now!

So you can see

2009-06-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

heres a viewport shot on flat render with no normals obviously. So you can see the texture a little more clearly

update

2009-06-24T14:48:00.001-07:00

finished the face texture yay!!!!

New Renders

2009-06-21T05:08:00.000-07:00

Heres an update on my Hells Angel Project.

Finished Re-topo of my head because i started out sculpting with a blob so there was no low poly when i was sculpting, its quite nifty!. WIEGHS IN AT 2,300 TRIS.

heres the mesh flow so you can see for yourself:

and heres some 3ds max 2 omni light renders:

moving onto unwraping the rest of the body as they already have low polys :>.

Hells Angel WIP

2009-06-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

Summer project for heather so far, going to retopoligise his head other than that the low poly is done, heres the sculpt its nearly done.

Dominance war IV Mini

2009-05-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

entering the dominance war 4 mini sculpt challendge, which is fun, dont have to worry about texturing :>

Turntable

2009-05-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

I felt my presentation sheets really didnt show my model very well so i rendered out a fresh new turntable video for all to enjoy...

Dominance War IV Finish!

2009-05-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

I spent along time today try to sort out my presentation sheets but eventually gave up and made them half assed as i remembered im not too borthered about coming top 50 as the amount i learnt from this project is absolutely paramount, zbrush rules....

2009-05-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

a little update on some zbrush action, i think im in love with this program, ones thing for sure i know what i want out of life now. heres a 2 hours speed sculpt i did at phils! i tried to do some sort of vamparic/beastman half breed with a human:

Dominance war IV update

2009-05-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Past few weeks has been a real eye opener, into the world of Zbrush and character modelling, its all ive been doing, its official, im addicted.

I got almost to the end of my dominance war character, even finished the sculpt, baked the high poly and was 15% through texturing when the deadline was extended and wierdly enough the first thing that came into my mind was to start again which ive done. These are the characters i started on, I had an idea of doing princess twins under the 10000 tris limit which i thought was plently but unfortunately i felt my skill level wasnt good enough yet to pull it off, i will come back to them after dominance war, i promise myself that:

I have now moved onto a single character instead, straight away i feel more at home doing a male character for some reason, the only trouble im having is dealing with the goat feet its very cliche i know but im sure i can pull it off to look cool ive got a week to figure it out:

some renders

2009-04-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

i just noticed i havent actually posted any screenshot renders of my new model, also posted my wip for heather's summer project.

Conclusion

2009-04-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Now that the group projects are out of the way i thought it was about time i wrote my experience of it.

On the first day when we had our teams announced i was excited, i was honoured with a strong team, i thought it was a great start. My main worry was to make sure it was fun throughout and no bickering, no offense to the third years but i felt if argueing is kept to a minimum then workflow can be consistant and we'll reach the finish line which hasn't been achieved in most previous group projects.

I also wanted to show the current first years that the group project should be something you look foward to not being terrified of, just like college, group projects were always the most fun. Simon's group is disbanded and spread to other groups and my excitment drops a little, i didnt like the idea of gaining another team member as our group had our idea sorted and we had started working already, we gained Simon as a new member and as i expected Simon wasn't too keen on the idea at first but after a few chats he was on board as I could understand i'd be upset too if my team was split up....furious actually.

Dave (assinged tech lead) suprised me with his unreal knowledge, again i felt lucky, he managed to fire out the basic bsp level in the engine in under a week and we had some assets already placed, when i think back i felt this was a keystone in our progress, showing what the level will look like so early made everyone work harder and faster at this stage my team members where making close to 4 models a day.

Chocolate fridays
Simon you greedy bastard...... fast modelling comes great hunger for chocolate.... I had an idea to bring in treats every friday while i went to life drawing to keep my group going all it did was keep Simon's belly growing. It did prove to work though, if Simon textured any faster he'd burn mouse mat rubber. Dan was blastering through some seriously difficult stuff really fast and i admit because of this i assigned him harder stuff towards the end...sorry Dan.

My first mistake as leader was telling Leon to just go through the asset list and texture what you see on there which he did well with haste but i told Tom to do the same and forgot to keep communication between them to a regular amount and therefore some models got overwritten...sorry guys my bad!

Fun times

What sticks out as the best times to me was getting Tom to email Taurus to get thier plans for their rocket so Tom could model it but i think they ended up thinking we were bad guys or something and bluntly ended communications with us. Generally everyday was pretty fun, I may of joked around too much with insults and such but I hope everyone took it light heartedly but i mean this when i say it, it was a pleasure working with all you guys *firm handshake* lets do this again sometime.

rembrandt again

2009-04-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

after the presentation i got a vibe that told me the tutors like my rembrandt stuff over my other work so i did another 4 hour study today to get me warmed up for peice ill create with my own references rather than studying one of his pieces and try to follow his style.

new video

2009-04-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

this one took 6 hours to render....oh the humanity....

2009-03-31T10:09:00.000-07:00

Here it is in all its glory finally with normal maps and speculars and show cool lighting which sadly didnt show that well but you see some shadows i suppose...enjoy!

Self Portrait FINISH!

2009-03-30T14:42:00.001-07:00

made the finish line just gotta finish texturing my enviroment and vehicle and ive done all the 3d! yay

speedpaint 20mins

2009-03-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

word was eating, battled del for the speedpaint cup!

OMG-A-SAURUS

2009-03-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

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del showed me this on youtube.........and i JIZZ in my pants...*funny joy face*

on a serious note i cant believe this wasnt top 50 he must of been pissed....ive been trying to figure out, yes the face isnt AMAZING but damn its close to it, maybe he did something im not aware of that affected his votes, ill never know....

easily my favourite entry from the 3rd dominance war...hands down, dont get me wrong i love all the finalists but this hits my buttons.

UPDATE

2009-03-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

heres just some screenshots of work im doing at the moment, dont worry i know the texture for my face looks rather cartoony im going to work on that i promise

Self Portrait Model update

2009-03-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Well Im modeling myself as a littlebird/blackhawk pilot to go along side my vehicle project because i really enjoyed watching blackhawk down recently and modelling myself in my own clothes was starting to bore the hell out of me plus i dont have interesting clothes like del has.....

Main reference image im using, helmet is proving to be a real hard ass to model hopefully i can push through and get onto the body today.

"CLICHE"

2009-03-19T10:59:00.001-07:00

What a word.... carrys powerful meaning when it comes to design/concepts.

I want to explain my theory on it.

I'm Currently preparing for dominance war IV and yes all of it is cliche but when it comes to some models/designs, i feel its ok to be cliche, infact, i encourage it. When it comes to execution, cliche, is your most powerful weapon. If your strong technically you can make any cliche idea into a beautitful job worthy piece of gold. my first example:

rawkstar's entry that won first place in the worlds biggest online art competition judged by gifted industry buffs, so theres no one that can really say its not correct game art, hes pretty much job hiring material. sames goes for all examples im going to show.

Right lets list what the character's main traits are:
Horns
Staff weapon
Big armour
big boots
Tribal tatto design
blue magic
cape/cloak

if you looked at the list i just written without the example image your response would be "Thats sounds crap and CLICHE", wierd huh? lets me try and find an image thats the same design but next to none technical ability:

apologies to the artist for using his art as an example but its the closest to rawkstar's idea i could find, right lets list his traits:

big boots
big armour
staff
blue magic
cape/cloak

so all art media aside image them both as just paintings or concept art, one will get you a job the other will get you turned away but they both carry the same elements so heres my angle: Its ok to paint/model cliche stuff (like i do all the time) if you support your idea with good reference and technical ability in the end thats what games/INDUSTRY are......cliche......

do you agree?

Self Portrait new topology

2009-03-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

well trying to get through re-doing each project at a time, started self portrait again last night, modelling myself to co-inside with my littlebird helicopter...as a pilot! yes i counts as a self portrait because i own the kit! haha! i beat the system so i dont have to model myself in boring civilian clothes!

Some WIPs and rembrandt...

2009-03-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

well went to the national gallery a week later than anyone else...(naughty me) and use the inspiration to start many pieces, also the new punisher film "war zone" provided some awesome inspiration its cheesy but damn its just cool....

and heres my digital follow up of my pastel study of Rembrandt

YAY dominance war

2009-03-01T11:46:00.000-08:00

done my first entry for dominance war and i have mixed feeling about it but one thing i learned above all is that its not the winning its the journey, I picked up alot of great hints from other artists that has improved my ability.

Self Portrait

2009-02-10T12:10:00.001-08:00

got like 5 weeks left including this one till everything needs to be finished so im going to re-do my self portrait model, i reckon i can do it in 5 evenings or so with proper uv-wrapping and textures (might give zbrush a shot). with a new ortho decided to do a different model because i thought the big jacket was a little boring, i will include my bag from the last model though.

Collateral

2009-02-04T08:18:00.000-08:00

nuff' said.

Dominance war IV

2009-02-03T20:08:00.003-08:00

The group project, i feel, is going better than expected, everyone is pulling thier wieght and more! Makes it hard to lead them, i can hardly keep up. Some problems have emerged technically, such as lightmapping, its a wierd concept this lightmapping stuff it looks nice when done properly but its a hit and miss process.
Other than that its going swell!

Dominance War IV starts when our group project finishs which is perfect! I can then focus on that for abit. After a chat with Del theres a few suttle hints to what the 4th dominance war is about but im going to keep my designs basic for now so i can adjust it to the theme they release in a few weeks, i will attempt the mini challendge they have lined up also.

so heres a basic concept i have so far. Im going to do twins for sure. Im just going through which combination though for example: Brother and sister, sister and sister or brother and brother after ive all drawn them up together i will choose my favourite but one thing is for sure im doing a drow type race....there awesome.

Mod Update

2009-01-13T02:25:00.000-08:00

Heres some character art done literally hours ago form our mod syndicate wars.

First character sheet for the cyber punk bad girl:

New Blog!

2009-01-12T17:45:00.000-08:00

New Josh Nizzi super blog(uber game artist http://www.joshnizzi.com/)
made by Mitch http://wrathofthemitchking.blogspot.com/

Captain Commando and Enviroment

2009-01-09T05:17:00.000-08:00

YAY! finished Capcom's face not sure if its good topology or not, moving onto his
armour now.

New Enviroment project, soooo much better than the last one, I prefer it because:

its not in leicester, its from Paris so straight away its a little more interesting
its massive.

10,000 tris so far prob finish with 15,000.

Warcraft DeathKnight Orc

2009-01-09T05:10:00.001-08:00

So this was my concept for the Ben Mathis week which took the first two days of the week....wasted time duh!

Heres the model finish and just needs texturing now :)

I know, I know....Im 2 tris over :( sad face.

Christmas Work

2008-12-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

Been doing a few projects over christmas to keep in game art shape so to speak.

Project No. 1

Captain Commando. I really like the whole comicon challendge on gameartisans.org but never felt confident enough, so heres my shot. Im re-designing Captain commando because i felt he'd look better without that silly visor! 25% through the modelling process and 40% through the design/concept art process.

Project No. 2

Taking into account what Ben Mathis said and modeling some pre-designed characters by hawkprey, his orthos are fantastic it makes it really easy to model his stuff. Modelled 15%.

Project No. 3

Re-doing enviroment project for Uni and re-wrapping my self portrait.

Some Work highlights

2008-11-06T01:05:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post some work ive done this year with comparisons to last year to get an idea of improvement, so here we go:

Felt in the category of character design I'm improving constantly, In the older image the anatomy is shot, out of place and just out right crap. Skin tone is boring and not realistic in either way. Newer image on the right is a little more believable, skin tones are more involving and the pose is a little more natural.

even though the older image of the builder is a less cliche design and of more interest its rendered horribly! need to improve on originality of design still.

Movie Update

2008-10-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

love dark city....thought it was cool...see good movies are not always black and white, very strange though. The way the film was shot did inspire me to create better compisition which i suppose these movie days are for, to aid us in art, its good that they are working on me.

Man on Fire, literally just finished watching it, its alot better than I remember. I think it was a better watch this time round because my eye is being trained to appreciate art more, before a good film was about the amount of weaponry in it. Man on Fire had great angles and colour, it was bright in the darkest moments which was crude but brilliant, ironic i suppose (inspires me to paint a ironic piece of a man murdering a clown or something). It had little details that built up into one awesome experience, it really touched me, currently creating a painting before my inspiration from dark city and man on fire runs out......

First Week 2nd year

2008-10-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

Night of the Hunter.....how weird was that but surprisingly entertaining, a great depiction of creativity, which is this weeks discussion, how education tries to kill it and how it survives through desperation, I think i finally know what I want out of life, I'm going to teach art but not the normal way, I'm gonna find a new way.

AIRSOFT

2008-04-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

my business (airsoft) feels like my only child something that ive given birth to, its something I could really see myself doing as a career full time but putting a different spin on it, normally airsoft is seen as the geek's paintball, to be honest I dont know why but I'll change that, I'm going to put my mind on making it more extreme, something you'd see at the olympics or players training everyday in preparation before matches, Intense cardio and constant shooting pratice.

Week 24

2008-04-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

Its the End of a my games design virginity, I can now draw, paint and model any idea that lingers in my mind. I don't know how you've done it but I'm starting to believe that I can reach what I call a f*cking good painter and modeller. The first year was very enjoyable from Ben Mathis to Speed painting. One major aspect I would like to see more of is industry experts coming into the lab and helping out, excuse my language, but it's f*cking cool! In my perfect world every month we'd have a industry expert stay for a week, hey f*ck it! Ben Mathis can come back every month and that would keep me happy!

Another part of the course I'd like to see is having a comparison day on how were doing against other universities and a discussion on how were getting on, "a relfection day".

The best bits of Game Art at De Montfort:- Ben Mathis week,the Webb Lecture, the game lab's atmosphere and the constant improvement on everyones art ability.

The worst bits:- the pressure that everything relies on a single submission and presentation day and sometimes the constant put downs.

The Games Developers Conference

2008-04-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

I wish I could of attended the coference on Crytek and its birth of Crysis, these guys are talented beyond realisation, the programming must of been insane, the AI is unpredictable, actually unpredictable! The frist time ever I've experienced that in a game, try it yourself, hop on and stick "delta" difficulty on, you'll be caught off gaurd, for example, I drove a truck in the road that had a fuel tank attached to it, my plan was wait for a patrol in another truck to drive up next to it stop then I could shoot the tank and it would send them all to hell, it didn't happen like that, they saw the truck in the road increased speed and rammed it the help out of the way set up further down the road and hunted my ass down, I couldn't beleive it, I got chills down my spine "this game is awesome".

Week 21

2008-04-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Million Dollar question, what do you want out of life? what’s at the end of the my university road?, well I'll tell you, not employment anyway, I'm realistic, I'll probably do some low paid, low responsibility job but don't dare think that I don't deserve to be on the course, I still intend to use everything I've learned on the course throughout my life.

I want to explode into the mod community and the Competition scene, enter Dominance war every year and help create top mod releases and if I get recruited through those methods then so be it but I don't want a game design employment so much that I'll revolve my life around it but I will definitely embrace games design as a hobby maybe even create my own game someday.

I do thank the course for telling me the brutal truth that games design isn't easy, its long hours and low pay but rewarding so I've decided to walk away with the best part, doing it in my own time being reward through competitions and fame and not through pay checks and overtime.

Week 20

2008-04-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

Creativity is something that should exist in every part of a game company but is definitely not required, especially for the "drones" so to speak, the employees that are given order to model a barrel need to have determination and patience but not creativity, this is something greatly required by a concept artist and they are the idea generators, the employees or employers at the top of the ladder will need creativity as they need to imagine ideas to a great detail which they pass on to the "drones", I could see however "drones" with great creativity being offered higher places of employement.

In the most basic terms I would say creativity is the ability to give birth to something beautiful mentally, something that diffinately helps in this course. I feel that too much creativity can effect ones personality, you know the ones I'm talking about, the people that can't concentrate, always in another world and when you do talk about something its over the top, as if they can't hold their excitement.

As perviously mentioned in our course and by Sir Ken Robinson creativity is normally something thats suprised and unliked by the eductional system as if it scares the goverment to allow to much freedom among people maybe they would rather have people stay in line and be boring than branch out and do something worth living for, I am constantly laughed at when I mentioned game design as a career normally due to thier creativity being supressed, I bet If I said I wanted to be a bank manager they'd support me.

Generally on the web creativity is seen as the cogs of a machine that creates ideas, the largest part of it that begins with inspiration and ends with either writing, drawing or communicating.

Week 19

2008-04-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sound goes along way to me, its sometimes the basis of my addiction to an array of different titles, especially Unreal Tournament, a deep voice that shouts with approval to your progress "HEADSHOT!" and "MULTI-KILL!" these sounds will stay with me forever and urge me to buy new releases in this series, these sounds have stayed with every FPS gamer since they were first played, Counter-strike has now adopted it and the famous pod cast pure pwnage (www.purepwnage.com) uses it for comedic affect. My favourite and I feel most talented sound game artist is Frank Klepacki (http://www.frankklepacki.com/) not only has his soundtrack to the command and conquer series always comes to mind but I also rate it quite high when it comes to just listening to music for inpiration and fun, I bought his albums off the internet as soon as they were released.

Command and conquer served the best sound, especially the first title, its my deepest memory of sounds in games, from the unit selection sounds "Commando Here!" to the unit death sounds "AH!!!!!" the only title I think could rival it is Starcraft, they such a big part of my life that I even talk about these parts in games hour on end with my fellow gamers that have the same opinion. However Nile rodgers is a musician that stands out when it comes to great atmospheric sound, his work on Halo saved the second title in my opinion, its gameplay was weak its sound was great but Frank Klepacki is the greatest of all.

Arg

2008-04-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

Putting together my presentation and the pressure is really starting to settle in, for some reason i really want an "A" grade, i know its only the first year and i have another 2 years to improve but I still feel really competitive about grades.

Week Seventeen

2008-04-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

A game engine is the compenents of behind the scenes of a computer game a movie director telling all the art within a game what to do, loads of little functions to create an experience thats fimilair to a human being, it can be audio, graphics and the underlining physics.

Within A game engine there's 2 different types of enviroment that take place, Additive and Subtractive enviroments, this is what the world builders will work on and eventually the mod teams who like to add extra content to a game after its release. An Additive Game engine is like Space, An empty infinite area that never ends which is more known as "the void" and then create a hollow cube which would be the sky box (inverted cube with a sky painted on it) then build your world within it, A subtractive enviroment is the opposite, our given a cube in which you need to carve into to create an area for a player to play.

Game companies either buy a game engine e.g. Ubisoft used the unreal engine on the Rainbow six series, or create their own which is a proprietary technology, something that belongs to them, a unique trademark that can be recognsed in many different games, the benefits of creating your own is you have an asset thats attached to your name that you can sell as many times as you want and support a mod community by giving the public the technology to use the engine and therefore keep your games alive for longer the disadvantages are that its extremely expensive to create and takes alot of time.

As for "Next gen" consoles, game engines has now a limit on its power, on a pc a game engine can be as big and as demanding as it wants to be because computers become more powerful by the day but console are at a stand still and game engine has to be even more clever and time consuming than before only the other day I was play a xbox 360 title and it was laggy and buggy....the end is near.

Week 16

2008-04-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

Game Culture being Online Gaming, talking on a instant messenger or discussing on any forum.

The only place where a 9 stone, palely skinned 16 year old can be the punisher, the bringer of pain. "YO MOMMA!" this language is normally thrown around by this type of individual, typically in real life or "RL" they'd be polite young men helping old ladies across streets so why the change in personality?, that’s what makes Game culture fascinating, you can be whoever you want to be..."yea I’ve got 3rd black belt in karate" where actually he gets served in real life by the neighbour's cat.

I admit, when I was 15 I took part in random slating of other players when playing online, even pulled a few white lies just to impress a administrator of some game clan, which would mean I’d be apart of hard going, "Pro" look down on recreation gamers culture which nowadays makes me feel sick. "YEAHHH GET SOME MUTHA FUCKA.... IM THE SON OF RAMBO!", I can't help it, its so damn competitive, nowadays I like to defend the weak and I’m normally the one who gets the back end of the game culture insults and to be honest its got to be around 30% of my life which is spent thinking about or taking part in some sort of game culture and yes i have spent over 50 pounds on a laser mouse..... they told me it would make me a better power gamer.

As for friends I only know through msn, there’s probably around 30, one incident which took place when I was 16 really sticks to mind, Roxanne was her name, back then I was an obese slug of a human being so any opportunity to talk to girls I'd take it, she was Dutch and to me the prettiest girl on msn, after months of talking to each other on msn, day-in day-out, I finally grew the balls to grab a flight to see her in Holland, I tell you what building a relationship on only msn is not fucking good, you'll end up in a country where you don't know anyone defending yourself from forceful hookers and drug dealers, nuff said.

OUCH!

2008-04-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

Dislocated my Knee during fight training, ARRR, didnt hurt as much as my toothache 3 months ago....wierd.

Week 15

2008-02-13T03:06:00.000-08:00

A decade ago, the industry was made up of hobbyist thirsty to show creativity, doom for example, created by a group of friends wanting to display thier talent. Investors, as usual, got hold of potential for financial gain which now reflects the game industry today. Employees are headhunted instead of a rag tag group of friends working together, models are churned out by the hour and assembled by seniors. Thats the experience of working in the game industry nowadays like a production line rather than unorganised friendship and because the industry is now full of companies wanting the best talent and is only a small industry it makes it extra competitive to survive and to get into.

In the future, my prediction is that it will only get worse, I know the industry will grow but only into oblivion. the whole business culture of reaching deadlines has already got a grasp. I would bet my loan that the pressure could kill a cow at 100 metres better than an M4 could and the employees are definitely feeling it, long hours with no pay, all for what? I'll tell you, for that great moment when something comments on a game you made and you can say, “yea I made that”.

Week 11

2008-01-15T17:35:00.000-08:00

Without Gameplay games wouldn't be games, they'd be films, game play is every moment and every decision you make in a game, its the spine of any computer game. I personally define gameplay as "What the player has to do to progress" e.g. In Doom you have to shoot zombies, In Operation Flashpoint you have to reach objectives, In World of warcraft you gain experience.

Gameplay is a milestone that game companies have to work towards in order for their game to be enjoyable or just generally playable as game are judged in 3 areas Visuals (graphics), Story and Gameplay if a game doesn’t meet one of those areas to a certain degree then it's crap, straight and simple. I would like to think games companies spend days trying to figure out good gameplay for their next venture rather than it being accidental, I find the main reason for engines such as Unreal provide a good basic gameplay that will reach the milestone as good games should have. Gameplay in games gives the player a connection to the game as all games are similar in one way so players can “pick up and play” sometimes without even doing in-game tutorials, gameplay should be simple to grasp but complex to master.

Week 10

2008-01-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

One character that will stay with me till I die is Leonidas of 300, I almost feel jealous of his heroism and honour, I would love to feel a great passion to die for my country, completely selfless and a good leader. His character came across as powerful due to his love for his family did not come above his service as a soldier, the film portrayed this way by never showing him say the words "I love you" or "I miss you" he never said words that would display him as vulnerable or emotional only emotional about war and a "glorious death".

A film such as 300 however it relied mostly on its visuals and not the script, it was a very beautifully graphic movie and leonidas became likeable by his actions and not his words, surviving epic battles and never come across as smug or arrogant but honourable and courageous which is a type of character a man would always want to be or admire.

The acting of this character also made him very likeable, when he did speak it was full of angst and passion for what he believes in, like a war cry to inspire his fellow soldiers, very patriotic. These war stories always comfort me because as I mentioned before it’s these type of stories and characters that bond well with the male psyche due to prone to violence and satisfies the everyday want to be a hero.

Week 9

2008-01-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

I personally think SEGA games are a too diverse for me, i like guns, guns and guns but god dammit those guys could build a console, I still....dream about the..dreamcast....wetttdreamss, come on! it had dead or alive 2 thats got enough boobs in it for everyone, good clean family fun. I love white tech, like the ipod, the white finish just sells it for me and dreamcast landed it perfectly the interface was spacey and unique, the playstation 2 was the competitor at the time but it looked clumsy and the interface was even more so. However from what Ive just said you'd think I'd go for the Nintendo Wii because its basically a dreamcast with a wiimote, wrong! I hate that thing, its an ugly console, uglier than a sega master system. Now the dreamcast had cool controllers, perfect. The controller had little slots for memory cards or VMU (Virtual Memory Unit) which basically could detach from the controller and transform into a gameboy but when it was plugged into a controller it would provide entertaining graphics such as logos or charaterture versions of the characters your playing as in-game.

The Xbox followed and then the 360 version, now the first xbox has a redicously intimitading interface that made you feel your inside a computer and also looked chunky like the controller but the 360 fixed all that, nice interface that you can browse easily online with and stream videos off your computer. The 360 controller has neat wireless technology also. I think controller won't die out, it sets out a standard that everyone can relate too if all controllers ended up like wiimotes then only the physically fit will previal and lets face it gamers just aint that fit so killing controllers would be financial suicide.

Week 8

2008-01-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

(In slow mo) Its Payne!, kill him! Max Payne is at the top of the ladder for storylines in games, emotionally involving and gives enough for you to hang on. This seems to be declining in more recent years, personally I thought it was over for clever storylines and thoughtful characters until Mass effect landed on my door step but we'll talk about that at a later date. I find a storyline is essential even games that don't have much of a story structure (World of Warcraft) wouldn't survive if the players didn't role-play and give it life and basically make themselves the storylines. Storylines sell games, truthfully a games company only need to make one good solid character and story and be able to sell sequels forever, feeding the public a little more (Half-life episodes and Halo) just enough to get attached like to a TV drama (Eastenders....).

Storylines can provide a moment in history or in different space and time that some people won't be able to experience because they either don't have the money or don't like to read books e.g. Call of duty provided a world war 2 experience that followed the real happenings of the war so gamers can have a taste of carnage that spawned in the 1940s.

One thing i'd put my money on is if Max Payne didn't have a storyline and was just a slow-mo kill fest (like 50 games that come to mind) it wouldn't of been as successful as it was. Storylines provide an image for the art team to build from, a basis for potential buyers to be interested in and allows geek to experience literature without have to pick up a damn book or watch a play,(in slow-mo) Its Shakespeare, kill him!

Mr Webb

2007-11-27T16:47:00.000-08:00

The guest lecture last week blew me away, I could feel the inspiration running through my veins, i felt compelled to create an uber portfolio, one full of excellent drawing, models and well spoken dialogue, so i hit my desk and play guitar hero, WHY?!? it always happens, i never have inspiration that stays in my body long enough, I'm gonna start injecting it.

anyway....I thought that lecture set a new standard, I hope the next lectures fall in line and kick ass like that one did it greatly increased my passion for breaking out into the industry, watch out game companies!

Week 7

2007-11-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

The art director is the creative source and brilliant critic, a veteran of how a game protrays visually. Mainly I feel the art director should be able to inspire other artists to build stunning creations. If I wanted to be an art director in the future I would expect me to be at least impressive in every field within game art design and all software that revolves around it. I would want an exceptional understanding of art fundementals from human anatomy to architecture, be able to draw with realistic detail and a high creative mind, to the point that I could draw out a unique realistic designs every half hour, because if the director is close to the best then the rest of the art team have something to aim for and be inspired by.

Art directors should handle pressure with ease, something I would need to work on, meeting every deadline and keeping other members of the art team in line. When it comes to discipline however I think an art director should be more of a co-member rather than a boss, shouting and screaming is not motivation and motivation is a big part of the role.

An art director in my opinion is similar to a film director, you want to give images to the public that will set in their mind forever, provide iconic images that are unique, a good film director creates films that are different from the last and the same goes for art directors, good art directors provide content in games that are different, both roles have to worry about lighting, mood and realism whilst guiding a team in the right direction. The only difference is the art director desides what a player should see and a film director desides what an audience should see.

Week 6

2007-11-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

It's almost impossible to compare games that belong in different generations, their is one way however and that’s to analyze how those games match up to technology and design in their own generation and then compare, Pong was good compared to it's competitors at the time but FEAR was average compared to its competitors in it's own generation therefore pong is the better game but otherwise FEAR is the prevailer, better graphics and better gameplay but what do these elements really mean?

A valid argument however is brought up by the writer of "the art of computer game design", he says graphics in older games are so flawed in the area of art that they seem laughable but we both agree that it lays out potential for creations to improve, these shoddy old creations have graphics at are noticeably bad because they do not portray what we feel a spaceship would look like or a "Pac-man" would look like. Thats also how I would define as good gameplay, good gameplay is that it feels like how we would think it would feel, like it real life for instance, realism so to speak.

I think world of warcraft has terrible gameplay because I don't think you could run around constantly battling giant monsters to no end even if you are an orc where I feel operation flashpoint has great gameplay because if you die you start again and you suffer from fatigue and injury. Gameplay is what you do to complete a game and if what you do in the game is just not believable then there can be no real joy from it. How the game plays and how it looks or just generally feels should be every employees input within a games company, if a musician thinks the music should be creepy then it should be creepy each area of expertise should be considered and not down to one person as they cannot think up of how every aspect of the game should feel, without it being crap anyway.

I think game designers should create games to try and give out the real feeling of the game instead of making games to sell, create wonderful pieces of art that feel real. I don't think all games should be realistic just created in a way to connect to the real world, thats whats important to me when I play a game, if pac-man got fatter as he ate yellow dots, if the invaders in space invaders spread out and even come at you in different ways then they would feel better to play.

Oh Oh!

2007-11-09T05:16:00.000-08:00

Its started, the November that will be a benchmark in history, the games released in this month will be the best in all of the world, Call of duty 4 is first which was released only hours ago. Assassin's creed, guitar hero 3, Mass effect, unreal tournament 3 and gears of war, 30 quid each, you do the math.

Week 5

2007-11-09T04:20:00.000-08:00

So there I am reading the 50th review of Halo in the same magazine, "9/10", "A spectacle you have to experience", "play before you die!" and then the multiplayer section at the back seems to be journalists on the dough from Bungie and Microsoft itself "Halo 3 is the best multiplayer EVER!" "I want to bum Bungie for creating this game!” After realising the world has turned into a Halo I started to feel a hate for gaming magazines, every magazine do the same reviews every month so naturally I find new games journalism a breath of fresh air. Rather than the predictable "299/10" scenario, new games journalism tells us an excited story, your paying for a novel that revolves around our favourite past time, a read that keeps us interested from start to finish rather than skipping to the end and see the score while looking at the pretty pictures.

Keiron Gillen is a great example, his review on Uplink and introversion games is beautifully write, he doesn't go on and on about how good or bad the game performs, instead, he tells us a background story of how the game was created and the characters behind it's creation whilst being full of wit, I'm actually considering buying it which is something I haven't experienced before, normally I decide what game I want to buy myself but Keiron has done it for me. I just wish all game reviews were like Keiron or the escapist, even though it can be ridiculously negative, good points are being raised that I didn't see before because my eyes were covered in game hype sh*t.

I like NGJ because it's honest writing, funny but honest I don't get the impression of a man on a payroll to write positive good things to sell games with, instead I get the impression of freedom and a good use of time. As I previously mentioned in week 3 "I can't see blogging being relevant if it's an objective set by some guy in a suit who’s paid more than the writer unless there is a large amount of freedom aloud, blogging is more exciting if personal but objective blogging that’s kept in line is less of an opinion and more of a task." I love ranting on about games and I would love to adopt the NGJ style as not only is it fun to read but I bet my government loan its fun to write.

Week 4

2007-11-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

The year 2000 is the dawn of greatness, the playstation 2 is introduced and games become violent, absorbing and truely original. The console wars provide a brilliant spectacule, the microsoft gods battle the sony giants and give it's consumers games that would impress even the hardest critics such as the dead or alive series, the advancement of the metal gear series and Halo, DVD discs in consoles give the opportunity to create massive games such as Elder scrolls Morrowind. In 2001 was the start of the certification extravaganza, grand theft auto was being pinned for the sole reason of young gangs in america and child violence, games were starting to be banned left, right and centre. During these issues and events I was playing games such as operation flashpoint and Max payne, games of sheer brillance. The downfall of this era was companies releasing games for the sake of releasing games which resulted in hundreds of low quality games that made you feel like sawing your own dic...hmmm private parts off and do intensive labour rather than playing them.

Games were starting to be noticed as a serious part of culture and businesses were using video games as a arrow head for advertising, even the american army were recruiting players straight out of games.

The I hope the future will provide a gaming experience that will go beyond what you pay for. HD-DVDs and blue-ray will have a capability of huge games, games in which thousands of characters can converse, move and interact in worlds with extreme realism, this dream of mine isn't far off, Mass effect seems to follow these principles and looks worthy of my goverment lended 40 shiny pound sterling. The end of gaming, after watching the Human body 2.0, will orientate around neuro technology, being able to think the movement and move around game worlds without even touching a human interface device while looking at monitors the size of houses.

Making games in the industry is going to get very difficult, very fast. Game artists will stuggle to keep pleasing the consumers with original ideas, this will cause sequels to be released rather than new concepts. In in the next ten years I feel games will be the size of Terrabytes, game artists will be stuck, spending years to create single levels with massive detail that can rival competitors and keep selling copies, companies will die and give birth to the freelancer era, game artists will be hired out for periods of time to create the best content and then disperse rather than companies hiring employees to work for one company at a time. Projects will be lead by Men with ideas and vasts amount of money rather than CEOs of companies.

Week 3

2007-11-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

Companies rise from the dark ages and start to create series of games, one of the largest and most famous companies to be born are the godfather of tekken, Namco with its first big hit Puck Man, which has been ripped to shreds by the western world and called it pac-man, to be honest I don't see either names floating my boat but puck/pac-man was before my gaming era anyway. For people who don't know what pac-man or puck-man is however, read a book. Puck-Man was the first animated character with its own name and hunger for eating yellow circles and running electrified jelly fish.

In true Japanese fashion: "if it's not broken don't fix it", the Japanese now knew that this idea of having a named original character was selling, Nintendo shortly followed but with a storyline (the usual damsel in distress) where our favourite italian overwieght plumber, Mario, has to dodge barrels thrown at him by a giant monkey (Kong) and rescue the princess, what I don't understand is why doesn't Kong just go down a few floors and rip Mario's face off. Nintendo's great success lead to the first console release the Fanicom in 1984 with sold like aunt bessie's yorkshire puddings at christmas (a lot). The Nes sortly followed, the game industry was really starting to boom with releases such as Tetris and Sim city.

My Real first console expense was the dreamcast, now what i don't get is why it's slated so much, yes the games were very weird but it did have classics, Soul Calibur and Qauke 3 to name a few. Consoles however were never my favourite, controllers could never give me as much freedom as a mouse and keyboard, the second most distant memory of gaming was the first Command and Conquer, god damn love that game! still play it today, a recurring memory so to speak.

Week 1

2007-10-23T04:35:00.000-07:00

My blog review is on http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertainment/gaming/games-consoles/news/playstation-3-top-of-the-pops-as-xbox-flops?articleid=1090824422

written by James Rivington

James Rivington seems, to me, a sony worshipper, his blog entry is very playstation orientated and becomes xbox 360 pessimist towards the end he also appears to be a slight expert on geek-culture, his blog entries include geek music (Radiohead), geek tv (Computer Programmes) and female models (page 3). I feel his opinion however quite valid as I am desperate for playstation 3 to be successful so I dont have to purchase it for a couple of games ( Metal gear solid 4/Killzone 2) but in no way can I agree with him that xbox 360 sales are decline and might end in the termination of sales all together even though he does not state it his use of language says so.

His blogs strike me as personal but professional, his opinions and arguements seem almost balanced, I feel my blogs are more personal I'm willing to swear and curse the gods to get my point accross where James will keep his blogs parental guidance, probably due to submitting his blogs to some type of CEO of his website before they are posted, therefore his opinion is limited to the template of his superiors.

I can't see blogging being relevant if it's an objective set by some guy in a suit whos paid more than the writer unless there is a large amount of freedom aloud, I will stand by my statement and say blogging is more exciting if personal but objective blogging thats kept in line is less of an opinion and more of a task.

Week 2

2007-10-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

The History of Computer Games

The First evidence of computer games rose from our on country, the United Kingdom as part of an experiment at Cambridge University, the very basic but large computer device was named the electronic delay storage automatic calculator which simulated a basic Tic-Tac-Toe interactive game...I personally have never played tic-tac-toe.

Our American brethen shortly followed but with contradictory, the first game to simulate tennis was co-created by the man who helped build the Atom bomb, fun can be given and taken away by the same man: Engineer William A Higginbotham. In 1962 MIT's Steven russel create a game named "Space War" in which two players can battle in outer space, it was played on a massive computer named pdp-1. At the end of the 60s computer games were applied to training and education which was introduced by Ralph Bear, I personally find that eductional games are boring and dull, they should include headshots and multi kills.

My first experience with gaming was an onboard game for the first sega master system named Alex the Kid in which you have to battle giant hands with legs at Rock, paper, scissors. Its 8-bit graphics blew me away, compared to Halo 3's graphics however is a stupid arguement to even think about, Halo 3 is the most recent game im playing, I originally thought Halo was a silly effort in trying to kill half-life's success and hated halo and it's fans for even thinking its a better game than half life but fair play to them, Halo 3 is pretty damn awesome. My brother was probably the reason why I feel so passionate for Half life and probably the reason why I started playing games he also suggested to me that I break into the industry, I owe alot to him, In exchange he wants me to create his perfect game for him when I start working which he says will kill World of Warcraft's success, I believe him.

Halo (Spoilers!)

2007-10-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

I Managed to Complete Halo 3 on Legendary after hours of respawning just to see the supposed bonus video after the credits, once I had waited 10 minutes watching the development team names scrolling down the screen a secret video plays of the Master Cheif In his freeze status heading towards some metallic planet with creepy music playing in the background.....looks like theres gonna be a 4th halo.

American Football

2007-10-08T04:06:00.000-07:00

Generally I sit at home playing games till i feel too fat and jog till i burn it off then sit and play games till im fat again, a vicious cycle, so to maintain fitness i've joined the Leicester Longhorns American football team, 5 hours of straight physical fitness, it killed me, after try outs they assigned me as an Offensive lineman, dont worry I dont know what it means either but Ill give you a snapshot of what one looks like:

Now how the hell did they work this out? this guy above is a small Offensive Lineman compared to the others on the team, Im bloody 14 stone, Im gonna get turned into marmite.

ITS EVIL!

2007-10-03T07:41:00.001-07:00

Mclean's Campaign Against World of Warcraft

2007-10-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

My Rant against World of Warcraft is one of many, mine, however is a story about it's power to consume any life and turn it into a social retard, dont get me wrong, I love games and I love gamers but world of warcraft promotes unnatural rage and aggression. "7 million f**king people play it dude how can we be wrong?!", yes your right 7 million people can't be wrong but over 7 million people take herion and just like them you've been sucked in, your own opinion of the game has been shaped by Blizzard and the worshippers/Game masters of this MMORPG. FACT, the CGI of this game is stunning, I remember when I first saw the video of the Orcs charging armoured men as fireballs fill the sky, its beautiful, so like any other normal person I bought the game thinking I could re-create this scenario with my own death knight, once again I witness the CGI video as I start up the game for the first time and still blew me away but then I go through character creation and enter the game.......WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?! a cartoon textured mountain of churned shit, I dabble around like a hopping clueless turd and in the first 2 minutes I get comments such as : "F**kn nOOb" and " Use Google you stupid F**K/Its called Google Mutha F**ker can you use it??". You can't ask for help or converse in this game without being slated, come on, I aint gonna read the manual, it looks like a bible. My Conclusion, Yes the game has lots of content and its nice to be involved in a world thats not our own but seriously is everyone so aggressive in real life? no, they just take out their insecurity on people that genially wanted to have a good time, we paid money too so give us a break.