PPP evaluation

Well i was first and as always if your first you set the standard and i think i didn't set it high enough but my colleagues all like the piece which makes it a lot easier for me to do the presentation to the audience. when showing the piece off i found that it should of been a larger area for movement and so it was not so cluttered. The textures could have been improved but i think my message came across clearly to the audience if i could do it again i would make an avatar that stands in the area while you move around.
I look forward to next year and seeing what i can do.

Copyright laws

This is everywhere and it is really important to us as creatives since it is our lively hood and our creation that is being plagiarised our tutor's and our briefs repeatedly talk about it. It recently happened to my friend who had work stolen and used as a final piece and it ended up in court, lesson is if you can't create something on your own then don't enter the career in my opinion.

Sectors and services

When i re looked over this i remembered how this was quite a complex lecture about the three sector of industry Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. I believe that the creative industry aka us is in the tertiary sector which is a least funded sector which is a little disheartened. This will be a situation i will do more research on in the future since it will impact me in the future since it is my field.

Writing an evaluation

I can tell you that i wasn't in for this lecture so i can only say how i don't like evaluation since i haven't had to do an evaluation since i was in school. This is something i need to do more research and practise so i can create more complex evaluation as well as them being longer. this is important for industry since it shows that you and see what needs improvement and won't cause the company to lose money. It also increases your chances of getting hired.

Social media and communication

This was an interesting lecture since it was talking about facebook and the communication age which can be found all around us. The power of the internet is testament to this especial with youtube since alot of people that have done something unique or surprising can be helped by millions on the web, such as the man with a golden voice who had a radio voice and got a job thanks to the internet.

With new communication the general public are more involved and emotionally connected which make it alot more powerful than word of mouth. now i don't use online communication as much as i used too due to how most information is rubbish and useless. i have started to have a more business section on other sites than facebook.

Skim Reading

Skim reading is a skill that i never was really good at but i can read quickly so unlike most who can't skim read at least i could go over the piece of text quickly i missed the event but from what i have seen with the other blogs they did an task that helped skim reading. This is a skill i need to improve over the next couple of year or i might have a hard time with the writing tasks.

Lecture Making Connections

We had a lecture that spoke about how everyday life connections such as facebook. It was interesting to find which sites are used and how people keep connected. I have used skype for many years for keeping in contact with family and friends but i saw their point of that it can be used to talk to contacts in a large conference call.
Here is the examples she gave:
Twitter
Digg
Red Bubble
Flikr
Linked In
SlideShade
Myspace
Skype

The tips that were given are
be generous, be kind, respond to comments, share links, credit sources and many more

This was a very generic post which had good information but it seemed like they just did it because they had to.

Fallen kingdom

Minecraft is a game that has created a large following with 100's of people online creating videos about it online and this is a project by such a group have a look.



I love this music video and i do mean the whole thing, the animation is impressive the remake of the song was spot on and the story really hit the viewer. The group of CaptainSparklez and friends did an amazing job especially since they didn't meet up and it was all digital communication during the process.



As you saw on the second vid there was quite a bit rigging which allowed all the emotions that the character had and i was so jealous of their skills which is why i will experimenting with maya to try and improve my skills during the holiday. This is definitely and inspiration since it isn't made by professionals it is made by people like me which is why i want to be as good as they are.

Tupac Hologram

I have been looking forward to doing this post since it gets me really excited with the possibilities but anyway have a look at the vid.



Now when this happened everyone was going crazy but as usual it only becomes popular when someone or something mainstream is added, I really like tupac and it is impressive how much like him the hologram looks which i think is the most impressive thing. This technology has been around for a while and i find it interesting how the effect is down which is explained below.



The only reason i used this vid was because it was the only one that shows how it is done but beside from that finding out it is a 2d projection is shocking but i think this is a perceptive thing and what our brain sees but like i said they weren't the first to do it.



We have gorillaz performing above and hatsune miku again below now both of these groups or performances use the 3d/2d projection technology and by doing this create a unique feel to the gig. The more time passes i think that this technique will increase in a multitude of ways.



My hope is that in the future amusement parks will get there hands on this and can create a guide that moves across the screen with you on the ride or instead of maps that you get given you could have a projection appear and give you direction when you push one of multiple buttons in front of it. I would be quite happy if we could get a rancor (star wars), troll (LOTR) or and ent to show up as a huge projection in front of you for live action events such as MCM expo. the possibilities as usual falls on your own imagination.

Avengers

the most popular film recently in cinemas at the moment is Avengers (assemble in uk) i have put the trailer underneath here.



I held my judgement on this film when the trailer was released since normally films like these do well when they come out but people get disappointed which was the case with quite a few of the origin movies, the movie in my opinion as a comic fan and will always put my hand up to say i am a hulk and thor fan so seeing them together was a fans dream. The actual sequence of events in the movie at certain sections got a bit tedious but the action scenes made up for quite a few of these. The actors used for the movie were really well chosen and it is hard to see anyone else playing the part. The post and pre production was definitely hollywood blockbuster standard there were only a few moment were it was hard to pick things out in the shadows but when that happened it seemed on purpose.

They have hinted at another film which i will be looking forward to especially if it is as action packed, comedy filled and as full of adrenaline filled as this one but as usual it is going to be hard to create a sequel that is better than the first film so that is a challenge i am looking forward to seeing them solve

Mass Effect 3

One of the biggest video game series, a giant on the consoles and this is going to be a review of the third in the series watch the trailer below.



Now i don't really want to use this term but the game is epic except for all the trouble of the ending that everyone speaks about BUT this post is about the game not the story as much. now as for the gameplay compared to the first and second the one change that stands out most is the change in the cover/shooting system and how they add a multiplayer in the game. The multiplayer is shown below.



The multiplayer was a surprise but the game itself ranging from the campaign to multiplayer is beautiful and really well designed. As i played the game i felt that it was really good build up if you look at how the conflicts got bigger and while i am a bioware fan i think they did a good job with most of this game.
When the game was released there was a major uproar about the ending and as a fan and even as a fan of games in general they could of put more effort into it but as i said before it isn't about the ending.
All in all it is a game and series i would recommend to anyone and give all the games a 9 if not 10 out of 10 since they are what games should be like rather than making two games the exact same.

chess love story

I don't know how i found this gem but i try to find the people who did it and could not find a better video quality or the group who did it but i really love this animation. The narrative is a very sweet story and has all the scenes and conflicts you would expect in a movie. The modelling for the background and the characters is beautiful since you can tell all characters had alot of attention put into there modelling. I would like to try my own version of this since it is quite and inspiring animation and seems fun to do.

beyond black mesa

The basic story is following Adrian Shephard and a group of freedom fighters trying to get a message out about the incoming invasion.

these are the group who created this stats on their filming
 Independent short film - 2 years in the making - Endless hours of post
- 1 Canon HV20
- 7 Friends
- $1,200 budget for the full short film.
Directed by Brian Curtin
Producer: Matt Hall, Mat Powell
Actors/Grips: Joy Gravel, Walt Thomas, Andrew Gothard
Special Tracks: Nate Quarterman
Narrator: Taylor Robinson
Audio Mastering: Eric Chapman

I really like this narrative which is based in the video game half life universe which has quite a small cast and large amount of editing which i really liked. The lighting for this piece was moody and suits the actual game enviroment. what makes this so impressive is how much special effects in pre and post production are done such as the zombie make up and the costumes for the combine armed soldiers. I would like to try something like this but the factor that shocked me was the budget and the 2 years in the making but all in all this was a good find.

Warren Elis

this is a post about when i went to see a video biography of Warren Ellis called Captured Ghosts and this is a inspired post about how ideas can come from other fields. Warren Ellis created the comic book Red which later got used as a plot and basis for a movie which got quite good feedback and response from fans. The same idea is used with video game design such as dante's inferno which is based of a poem and book that shows as long as you have a good story or basis it can allow you to create a good outcome.

Cinematic game or Interactive movie

Recently a lot of games use quick time events in the games which annoy a lot of people since they appear at weird times but quite a few games have learnt how to make them an actual game such as the ones below.

 

Jurrasic Park the game came out 2011 and was a bit underrated due to what other games were released at the same time and a lot of people don't like the game due to it being more like an interactive movie and it not being action packed enough. Visually jurassic park is beautiful and it is really good design it is just gameplay that everyone didn't like and the story was a little too slow paced for most.



Farenheit was the predecessor of heavy rain and it used quick time as a major gameplay component. Farenheit is a game i loved it had a good story, a balanced gameplay style and is a overall pleasant game to play. The whole point of this post is talking about do you need to make a cinematic game or can you make it a movie where you can decide what happens during the story. i think this is a difficult thing to decide on since it takes away the concept of a game but it is still in debate even now so i expect more games like this in the future.

Hydrophobia

Now i recently got Hydrophobia for quite cheap and i completed, now a lot of people had bad opinions of this and it got a few bad reviews but i think most people forgot that this was an xbox live arcade game so it was never going to be A list. Many people found that the water physics were over hyped but when i played it i found that if there was a glass window on the other side and you were going to get attacked you just shot the window and the water rushed them off their feet, since it is only a xbox arcade game i think that is really well done. I agree with a lot of people that say it wasn't as good as it should be but as i pointed out above it wasn't going to happen, the feedback from all the reviews help Dark Energy Digital since they have potential with this. Water based games are popular due to it being a challenge and i wouldn't mind trying to create my own game with physics like this game. The game is really moody and it does well making the game dark and moody but still allow you to see were you are as you move around, the gameplay was a bit lacking and the story could of been improved but like i said the game had potential. The game used a fps format rather than sticking to puzzle platformer which i think suits it better.
Personally i would recommend this game but a lot of people wouldn't  which is fair enough since we all have an opinion

Somebody that I used to know

This is the music video for Gotye song 'Somebody That I Used To Know' that had a little Controversy over the meaning of the narrative in the music video. What i really like about this video is that they do a really good job with the colours and how all it really is is two people singing in front of the camera it is a very nice piece and goes well with the song. I really like how it isn't a complex video with a lot of moving shots it is basically a tripod at a certain height just recording which you can see with the speeded up sections. i really like how simple this video is and how it can be shown to anyone and the narrative is brought across.

Tangled

I recently watched Tangled and it was the first time i saw it and while watching it felt very old disney rather than how disney have done most of their most recent movies, I feel that the movie brings a nice touch to an old story under here i have the official trailer.



Now the movie itself is a nice family movie and this trailer gave a different feeling than the actual movie itself and i would of liked if some of these scenes that are not in the movie were used. The movie itself was good but the thing that really impressed me was the animation of the hair since it flows very realistically in certain scenes of the movie and that is what interested out of the whole movie sadly. The story and sound design were good but i felt it didn't have as much of an impact since i was doing the animation module at the time so that was the bit that got my attention rather than the other aspects of the movie.

As i have said i enjoy the movie as a whole but the animation that was done that made me make a post about it.

This is a video showing how it didn't all go to plan.

Kinect applications

now kinect is the most recent advances on xbox 360 and it has gained a lot of popularity for the fun you can have as a group, personally i think kinect is for more child related audiences such as family but also a large group of teens or adults since it is just a innocent form of enjoyment.

As a piece of technology the kinect has a range of possiblities such as below:



 The way they showed using the camera to generate a puppet that moves with your hand and makes sounds with your movement, the puppet is really impressive but i want to see what else you can create using this type of projection and modelling for example a full body model and projection of a bird or a creature that can be projected on a wall.



This is more my thing i love the idea of creating a weird creature and motion capturing him without using the multiple cameras or renting out a large space to do the filming i would like to look more into the technology of this and also the program they use since it seems an easy to use program.



It's amazing when you look at the difference between the raw data and the animation model it's hard to believe he can get such great facial captures from such rough raw data. The ability to capture faces using the camera makes the amount that it will cost to do it decrease so more games or animations could have better facial acting which is an exciting as a designer.

The abilities of the camera are really a lot more than what they originally designed it for i think but the only ones who know that are microsoft so i am not sure. This one piece of tech as made it possible to do a lot more as designers and i look forward to see what someone does with it in the coming year.

Tesla Coils

This is a weird post since it isn't about the thing itself but what it suggests for media and concept for media.
 

Now Arc attack aren't the first group to use tesla coils to create music but the are the most well known and it is a very impressive sight and can lead to a lot of interesting concepts in the future. Now below is a scene from Sorcerer's Apprentice which uses the tesla coils in the story.



Now the reason i brought this up is because it shows a narrative in a story can be directly affected by technological advances which thankfully for script writers it means they can advance their story teller, Writing stories for me is more imagination based but as this style of inspiration arrives it means i can change ideas and make them better or completely revamp an idea.

Music In Our Games

Video games have always used music due to the immersion it can create for the player ranging from calm music during the town or city scenes and fast paced music for fights or battles one such series that created iconic music that is memorable to all who have played them is the final fantasy series. Nobuo Uematsu is the video game composer for the final fantasy series and created all the pieces which allowed the composer to go the direction he wanted.

Some games use already worldwide and famous music but use them set places such as Saint's Row the third which uses 3 songs in certain parts of the game to give the feeling of power or desperation to the player. One such song was Bonnie Tyler holding out for a hero which is played in a car chase at the end of the game while you try to save your friend, the song empowers the player and makes the player hold down the accelerator a little longer than normally, also must be said i love that section and song.


(this was the only video i could find that shows the saints row use of sound if you want to see the part go 1:00 in)

Some of my favourite music is just because of the position of the music such as the use of just a simply cue to enter a character or an event on screen or more commonly known on the ost as a characters theme which is normally only played at a certain part. one of my favourite examples of this is gears of war 3 when if you fufill a certain condition it plays the ashes to ashes trailer music which for fans is a really nice thing.

I really like when companies give extra effort when designing music for games be that either fitting for the scenes or if they create an easter egg for the customers of the company.

Hatsune miku

Now the japanese have always come up with interesting ideas and technology and this one is about hatsune miku here is a video of her below



Now as the video shows she isn't real but that is not the point i am raising today what i want to talk about is the software called Vocaloid and this is the description from http://www.vocaloid.com/en/about/
"Vocaloid is a technology for singing voice synthesis developed by Yamaha, and the name of this software application. The software allows users to input melody and lyrics in order to synthesize singing. In other words, with this technology, singing can be produced without a singer.
Singing voice synthesis is produced by using fragments of voices recorded from actual singers, called the Singer Library. By changing this Singer Library, various voices such as Miku Hatsune and Gakupoid are able to be created. There are countless musical pieces that have been uploaded to Nico Video and Youtube that use these products."

So the reason i decided to talk about Vocaloid is because i find it interesting and i believe it won't just be a passing fad so to speak. A few people use the vocaloid as backing singers so thankfully it won't be just for lead singers since they would be to similar in my opinion. The thing that amazed me was how you wouldn't have to worry about them being sick or losing their voice since it is all computer generated. I would love to get the program just so i could play around with it and create new voices to use in video games and animations.

Blur studios

the first piece i realised that i had seen of theirs was the gentlemen's duel.



i enjoyed the piece a lot since it brought a interesting twist with the steam punk machines to a quite old mundane thing which is the gentlemen's duel. The art direction of the piece is amazing and the use of light in the piece really gives the feel of a duel. After this piece i looked into Blur studios which is the animation reel below.



I really didn't know they did all these until i looked on their site and it really surprised me that a company i just heard of was apart in all these games. On this video's youtube page i saw a comment from someone saying "So their job is to make S*** games look better than they actually are, this i find unfair I think you have to take it the same way you takeTV adverts it won't be like the advert since the things are supposed to get major hype so you are interested so when you get the game you can make a judgement when you buy it. Ignoring the negativity the company are really good at there job and this shows with their portfolio and how much people talk about the games at least 10 of the games they have worked on i own and all the other ones i have seen parts of. Definitely a job i wouldn't mind putting my name to in the future.

Sound Test

I used a lot of sound effects on my project so being taught about pitch, range, 2d sound, 3d sound and Doppler effect really helped give the effect of the battle around you and i was able to set the area of battle around you by using cubes to attach the sound and move it around to the desired position. one thing i didn't get taught was if i could give a slight delay to the start of a sound file but i managed by using soundtrack pro to get the sounds to last longer. I should of put background music in but face it because of the alarm as a 2d sound and is everywhere you wouldn't hear it.

Terrain tool

With my piece i didn't use this but it was very helpful to learn especially since i have future ideas that will need an easy to make environment, the tool was mainly used during my test shipyard since it was more used for the background rather than the actual playable area. I will use this tool more in the future but at the moment in my space level i didn't use this at all.

Particles

One part i really enjoyed experimenting with was particles since you can do so much with particles, ranging from fire, smoke, rain, dust, waterfall and many more which if you add scripting i think the amount of stuff you can do increases quite a lot such as your character walks on a trigger and steam bursts out of the floor. In my environment i used fire and smoke but i also changed smoke to make steam that flows along the floor giving an eerie effect as the player moves through the level.

Intern Crit/ play test

 These were the feed back i received and the main point at the time was texturing, lighting and the ability of not being able to fully explore the level so i took all the comments into consideration and edited the piece accordingly.

UV mapping & Texturing

UV mapping & texturing was difficult for me since i had a hard time getting used to it, i got the mapping and texturing in the end but was and still am really tentative when using it. One thing i didn't do was bump mapping since i found it difficult to get to appear how i wanted them to. I know that white is top and black is at the bottom on the bump map but i felt that i should try this more during my own time when i have a long period of not doing work to get better at it.

Unity

When we started unity it seemed a bit confusing but i found when we got into it i enjoyed it, the layout seemed easier after the first lesson since the first lesson we learn' about colliders and mesh renders which leads to creating invisible walls and also triggers for sounds and scripted events. After the renders we looked into lighting and how it was similar to maya in the way of how it is controlled and how it appears.

I look forward to learning more.

Moral Combat

We watched a documentary which was talking about ratings and also just because you can design a completely violent game should you. My thoughts is that violence in video games isn't bad if it is used tastefully such as hitman series since some of the violence is bad since the objective is to kill your target but it is done more tastefully than say manhunt which is an appalling game.
 
   Violence has been used to make you hate a character since the dawn of story telling so i don't see why a new form of media gets so much trouble for it when you have horror movies that should just be called gore movies.

  One point that they brought up that i agree with is that if a person plays a game and says it encourages them to kill i think there is a psychological problem with that person even if he didn't play games i mean hell do you see someone on TV go i want to wrap people in a ball like Katamari when asked why he murdered people no he just wants something to blame so it doesn't lay on his conscience.

Recently kids have become immune to violence and they blame designers but like one of the people said it's not the developers that are wrong it is the parents that allow them to play it which needs to stop blaming someone else and look more into how they raised their kids

This topic i think will keep going just because we are a new media in the industry so it is a bit of pick on the new guy so we will keep getting this abuse till we all agree on something that is beneficial to all.

Current Trends and Approaches in Games Industry

With research the book suggests looking into similar games and playing them to get a feel of what worked and look into reviews to find what the general population likes about a game and what each person interaction is in the project and when they start work in the project. I enjoy looking at this book since it has a lot of good information to give and also shows how to lay out your idea in a proper format.

Idea and Concept Development

In the computer game design course text book we were mean't to read sections of the book to gain a better understanding of the industry. The first section read was about inspirations to design and how you can design a game in the most unlikely way such as Pokemon which is glorified childhood bug hunting. The use of sketchbooks is highly suggested since it is a collection of possible inspiration for a later project including pictures, ideas and drawings. As For creating a new game it brings up the point of status quo and how instead of health packs in call of duty they made your screen red and blurry which caused your aim to be off until it regenerates. One section talked about how to gather materials and ideas and one of the key points was the internet which i have to agree causes a lot of different inspiration and help find research materials.The point it suggests is use mood boards and keeping references in one place which is something i have always done.