End of Year 2

Well the final assessment is already upon us, i can't believe how quick time has gone, it only seemed like yesterday i was reading the mortal engines briefs. I've certainly learnt a lot this year, especially the 3d side, mostly from my mistakes. The mortal engines projects played a big part in this. I made a lot of errors within each project, mainly with the texturing. Now i can look back at it and see how bad some parts were. The small projects heather gave us after Christmas were good fun. I think it would be good for everyone if these were set after each major project.

The group project was a major part of the second year. It showed us how things work in the industry and how important certain aspects are. Having good communication skills are vital, as well as consistency and naming conventions. I certainly enjoyed the group project and look forward to seeing what next years second years create. Even though the group project was fun, i still think i'll work on my own for the 3rd year major project. I like to have full control over what is happening, plus i won't have to worry about people not turning up or doing the work etc. Not that this really happened in our group, but i did notice there were one or two people in some groups like this.

The 3rd year major projects have really inspired me to get to grips with unreal, as some of the results are fantastic, something i am really looking forward to using in the 3rd year.

I'm starting to become more confident now with my drawing, i don't hesitate as much as i used to, i just get on with it, no matter how difficult the scene is. The better the challenge the more you learn i've noticed. The same applies to my life drawing, i feel i am improving steadily, Chris mentioned about getting life drawing every day next year which would be great.

I think the most important thing i have learned from this year is how important time management is. You would be surprised at how many hour you waste each day, and they add up, to a lot. One thing i defiantly need to do for the third is is create my own work timetable, and ensure i stick to it. Otherwise, things could go horrible wrong...

The Group Project At An End

Well, the group project is pretty much at an end now and its been quite an interesting experience. It is a great way to see what things will be like in the industry. The importance of scheduling, naming conventions and more. Personally im really pleased with the way our level turned out and also with the group i'm in. We all got on well and the weren't any bad moments or bitching etc. The use of a forum worked really well, it allowed everyone to upload their work and people download it from anywhere. We also used a blog to keep track of the level's progress and add any concerns or important announces.

From the feedback we got from formative assessment we all agreed to churn out a decent amount of small assets which could be placed around the level, as it felt fairly empty and didn't really have and signs of human activity. Writing on the walls in conjunction with the assets made the level believable. We also managed to get a few sounds and animations in the level.

From the start we all agreed we wanted to use lighting to create the atmosphere. The use of light fog and harsh lighting worked well. You can see enough to know where you are going and to see the assets, but not too much so you can see the whole room. This meant that the person moving around wouldn't get overwhelmed by the details and miss small parts. The lighting meant that you would have to move about at a slow rate, ensuring that you wouldn't miss anything.

Mark did a great job in the unreal department. His experience with UDK really helped us make the most of it, and also meant that we could start creating the level in unreal earlier, due to the fact that no one had to learn it. Obviously we all still had to learn it so we can create our own levels with our assets and textures only, but without the pressure.

I think one of our groups strongest points was that we always were in the labs when we were supposed to be, and at any time when a meeting was arranged. This meant that we would see the progression of peoples work and the level several times a week, ensuring that everything was going to plan and that there were no major issues. Communication overall was very good.

I think the main problem we had was consistency with the textures. Seeing as pretty much everything would have some form of corrosion, dirt and grime, getting the amount right was difficult. We made several mood boards which had the textures we were aiming for, as well as some colour swatches, which helped.

Overall, i feel our group project went well. Communication was good and motivation was high. This enabled us to achieve want we had planned at the start. The group project has taught me a lot and has been a valuable experience. I think everyone deserves a pat on the back.

You Require More Polygons

The amount of polygons, or tris, whatever you prefer, is constantly increasing every year. Seeing as computer technology gets outdated almost every six months its pretty easy to see why. Personally, i feel we are at a peak of graphic realism right now, almost every big game will have the same graphical quality as the others, none really standing out from the rest, although some will be better in some areas depending on the genre of the game.

One game that will raise the bar when it is finally released will be Gran Turismo 5. GT has always been know for its high level of details with the vehicles and now it almost looks perfect, the cars at least :

I read an article recently in a PS3 magazine on the statistics of GT5, and some of the cars consist of up to 500,000 polygons, compared to the original GT, which had 300 polygons for each car. Generally though, the majority of the cars will be about 100,000 polys. Below is a car not created for GT5 but built to the standards and constraints:

Pretty crazy. The reflections are brilliant. What amazes me is that the PS3 will run the game with 16 cars with this many polys and real time rendering at 60fps, which i doubt any computer could do comfortably. In a year or 2 probably.

Of course this doesnt mean you dont have to worry about low poly modelling, this is still a key factor in games, manly to do with levels of detail, the further away you get the less detailed it will be. I think GT4 had 5 levels of detail.

Oh, its a good job the ps3 uses bluray because at the moment GT5 is 140GB in size, planned to be released on 3 discs. No wonder its PS3 exclusive, installing it on a PC with dvds would be fun...

Character Design

It's always a challenge to create a decent, original character nowadays. Personally, i dont enjoy it that much and therefore struggle more than most people when it comes to the interesting character projects. Anyway, more and more games are becoming more realistic each year and so are the characters, at least in most games. Some are quite simply ridiculous. The main culprit for such crazy characters are generally beat em ups, which tend to consist of guys with muscles bigger than their heads and women with oversized breasts and some pieces of cloth or leather as an excuse for an outfit. Soul Calibur 4 thrives in this area of 'art' for example:

I guess some people who have never seen a woman in real life may find that attractive. Even Realistic games such as Resident Evil 5 go wrong sometimes:

Hurr, my arms are bigger than my entire head. It must be a struggle to find tops that don't rip every time to put them on. Luckily there are some game developers out their who know how to create decent, realistic game characters. The main one that pops into my head is Valve, with Half Life 2. Take Alyx Vance for example:

Nothing over the top, just someone who you would expect to see in real life, unlike the woman above. I suspect one of the main reason Half Life has such good characters is the fact that a lot of them are based on real life people, not made up. The link below shows some examples:

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs38/f/2008/363/1/0/Half_Life_2_Character_Models_by_leebyrne.jpg

If anyone asks you, i can't seem to make a decent character, building or vehicle, just tell them that all the inspiration you need it right outside.

The Group Project

Well its been a fair few weeks since we started the group project and time is flying by, it only seemed like yesterday we were discussing what to do. Personally, I'm very happy with the progress we are making and should make the deadline without much stress. We are currently on the stage of texturing the environment, most of which has been completed in a week. We now need to make sure that the amount of grime and dirt is consistent, as well as the colours used. The colours should be ok as we are all using a custom swatch made from several reference photos. Next we will be doing some beta testing to make sure the geometry is accurate and ensuring the textures are correct and have no major errors which stand out, such as obvious repeating textures. Once this is done any normals and specular need to be created. Even though we have been ahead of schedule for most of it i think the planing could have been a bit better, mainly the tasks given to each person, as a few things have been made twice by separate people. Nothing major, just small things such as lights and chairs.

Anyway, here are a few shots of the current textures (the composites in the view ports wont look as crisp by the way):

Desaturated

A few days ago i was sat at the window in subway staring out into the street when it occurred to me at how bland most people dress. Almost everyone will be in clothes that consist of greys, browns and blues. You really don't see that many people in bright and bold colours. It may be their personal taste or simply because they don't want to stand out like a sore thumb.

Its the same with most environments we live in. Looking down a street all you will see are tones of grey and brown, maybe a hint of orange or yellow. I guess it means everything looks consistant and not having buildings that look outrageous. Then again, that would make a trip to the shop more interesting.

Now that games are becoming more realistic the same is happening to most first person shooters. Games like Killzone 2 and the CoD:MW series. In Killzone 2 you can't even make out what's going on half the time because its so bloody dark. At least the recent release of Battlefield Bad Company 2 has given hope, the jungle maps are very pleasing to look at, full of vibrant colours.

This game is great by the way, if you are a fan of modern shooters then you'll love it. It's always satisfying taking out a sniper by bring down the entire building he is camping in.

Motivation and Time Management

Motivation and Time Management can make a big difference in peoples careers. Good time management can ensure that you make the most of your day, but without motivation, then it is useless. Sure you can have a timetable set up to ‘guide’ you through your day, but if you look at it and go, ‘ugh, boring, ooh so and so is on the TV’ why bother. Motivation is a key factor in life and without it we wouldn’t move forward.

Let’s look at time management. Not long ago I recorded all my time spent to see how well, or should I say badly, I spend my time. Here is what I ended up with over the duration of a week:

15 hours lecture time

22 hours self directed study

31 hours gaming

62 hours sleeping

18 hours eating, cleaning, random crap

20 hours unaccounted

As you can see I really aren’t using my time very well. The main problem I have is the fact it is very easy to get carried away. For example, whilst playing Team Fortress 2, I’ll say to myself, “right, just one more map”. Now, a map will usually take about 30 minutes until the server changes level, once you get going it is very easy to get carried away. “Just one more”, “ooh love this map” etc. Before you know it I’ve spent an extra 2 hours playing without realising. It also doesn’t help when you are playing with friends. Another similar situation is with sleep. At this age, we only really need about 6 hours sleep to function properly, but when you wake up and you are nice and warm in your comfortable bed it is so easy to fall back to sleep without realising. I say to myself, “just 10 more minutes”. Minutes quickly turn into hours and before you know it is 1 o clock in the afternoon. I find that putting my alarm on the other side of the room helps.

On the other hand, I always feel that I have done more work than I have. I look back on what I have produced in the last x amount of hours and realise I haven’t actually been work constantly. When I think about it I have wasted half of it due to distractions.

Having a good working environment ensures that you can make the most of your time. The trouble today is most work is done on the computer, which also have games, the internet, chat programs, music and more. Any of these can keep a person distracted for hours at a time without them realising. What I have done to prevent such distractions is this, deleted all the game shortcuts off my desktop, as well as signing off of chat programs to prevent more distractions. Some people I know have to have something going on in the background such as music or a TV program as they cant stand the silence, personally I don’t mind having some peace and quiet once in a while and can happily sit there working in silence, just as long I am enjoying the work. That’s another thing, passion.

Being passionate about your work will make a big difference to your motivation. You will find that if people are given a tasking based on something that they are passionate about the outcome will probably be of a higher quality compared to something they aren’t interested in. As for myself, I will happily sit down and model a vehicle in 3ds max simply because I enjoy it, ever since I was a young child I have been interested in vehicles. On the other hand, if I am told to model a character I find it much harder to concentrate on the task, become easily distracted due to the fact I’m not interested in characters and become bored. Another example would be this; during the summer I went to beaulieu for the mini cooper register. After looking around I sat down and drew my friend’s mini, which took roughly 4 hours. I enjoyed every moment simply because minis are something I am passionate with. Also the weather was pretty much perfect which helped. When we are told to go out and draw people in the streets of Leicester it is a different story. Drawing people quickly has also been a weakness in my abilities so the fact I find it difficult does help.

I feel that having breaks is important. Some people like to work for several hours at a time non stop until they have finished what they had planned to too. Personally, I have to take small breaks every hour or so, otherwise I can become bored or frustrated. I also realised that even though I think I have worked for say, 4 hours straight, I haven’t, I’ve probably worked for about 2, maybe 3. Sometimes I ‘hit a brick wall’ when modelling, simply not knowing what to do next, or how to overcome something. Having a break helps me to relax and clear my mind. I also find that having two or three projects on the go at the same time can be useful. If I get stuck with one or fed up with another I can switch to a different project, and then come back to the original one, now that I have relaxed. I tend to spend up to 3 hours on a project until I call it a night or switch to another, any more and I tend to lose interest. One thing I have learnt is to never play games whilst taking a break. Do this and time may fly by without you realising until it is too late.

Right, well im not really sure what else to put as of yet so i do a quick sum up. To make the most of each day I need to cut down on games and sleep big time. Ideally I should have about 42 hours of sleep a week, about 6 hours a day, as this is all you really need. As for games, simply uninstalled the majority of them will help, along with removing the desktop shortcuts to any remaining. The hours saved can then be spent on self directed study. Having a timetable will also help plan out each day, otherwise I could easily sit there wondering what to do for an hour.