Unit 65 - Rollover Buttons

Professional rollover buttons I've seen on the web, this company also has a free animation creator for users to make their own buttons. These are not made from flash but great examples of created buttons.

Image of a button made on flash, looks like the old subscribe button on youtube.
Few examples on this website; http://keithlemmons.com/index.php?p=6_1

Unit 66 & 67 - Basic Castle

Last weeks lesson with Chris we learned several important tools that we will be using on 3D studio max over the next 2 years. The tools we used were done by putting a editable mesh on the standard primitives and extended primitives we made using the basic tools from lesson one. We started off with a single cylinder then modified it using several tools; Vertexes, Edges, Faces and Polygons. After modifying the cylinder to look unique we used a taping tool that made the cylinder look like a spire, this made it look more like a castle straight away. Furthermore we extrude elements of the spire at the top to give the spire some battlements. Once the spire was completed we used the shift and move feature to clone it 3 times so it had 4 corner posts for our castles. Then Chris displayed on screen how to develop a wall into the spires. This part was fairly easy after watching the first segment. I created the wall and used the extrude tool at the top to have battlements like the top of the spires. Again I used the shift and move feature to clone the wall twice, this is important as we had to create a entrance to the castle. So after cloning the wall twice I made sure everything was in place and wasn't out of order, for one I had to rotate it 90 degrees as the castle battlements were based in a square figure. Once done I started on the front wall and used the polygon tool to lift the bottom half up to give the impression of a door being opened, I think it worked well but I wanted to do better, given more time I'm sure it could of looked a whole lot better. The castle was completed and I just added some more touches like having a green surface and a blue sky. The castle doesn't have a texture and is a plain gray colour, looks like play dough.

I enjoyed the lesson and follow Chris' tutorial well, as I've stated I believe if I was given more time I could of done a better job but still looking back it was good fun and enjoyable.

http://visualparadox.com/wallpapers/castle.htm

 

Here is a very well detailed professional 3D castle, the cloud over and foliage adding to the realism. A well detailed stone texture on the outside of the castle with battlements on top of the corner posts and small windows including a roof texture as well. The front gate is very well detailed with a iron look. Furthermore the shadowing is amazing adding even more realism to the piece. If I was creating a castle in the future with the skills I will learn I would put this kind of detail in to it to give it character and to give it just as much realism.

Unit 19 - Desktop Project Ideas

My four Ideas for my desktop project. Two ways I could do down this road, 1st using original Ideas by myself or taking a design and working upon it. The custom original design will get me a higher mark but my drawing skills are poor. 2nd option is to use current available designs and working upon it, this will look before but because it isn't original my mark will be lower. Best mark is important but I don't have the skills at the moment to present a quality drawing design.

1st Idea is a Car I designed last year with Chris, instead of having logos of the sponsors I would have keys words we agreed for our charter. Gray background, the college logo and a custom made media suite designed logo by myself. They will be a load of spaces for icons in the desktop image.

2nd idea is a custom made scene using characters from Metal Gear Solid, Snake under his cardboard box with the college logo on the box. Snake with the media suite on his mind, a creamy background colour, a soldier with a banana instead of a gun to appeal to a larger audience and the soldier commenting on the key words from the charter. Plenty of icon space in between the characters.

3rd idea would be a entertainment collage. A collage of the gaming devices on the market, instead of the logos it will have the key words on them. Creamy background again, custom made media suite logo and the college logo in the top right corner. Should be loads of room around the collage and mainly across the top.

4th idea is a chicane, a chicane is a type of corner in motorsport, like a wave of tarmac. This will represent Graffiti on the tarmac like you can see on the world famous Nordschleife in Germany. The charter points, custom made media suite logo and college logo will feature on the tarmac like it is seen on the Nordschleife circuit. Grass around the tarmac and kerbs to add realism.


Idea 1 is a original design by myself last year and would be worked upon by me for this year.
Idea 2 could be either original or worked upon. Probably worked upon though.
Idea 3 would be images worked upon and not original.
Idea 4 could be original but I would like it to look really good and I doubt I could draw that well enough to produce a top desktop image.

Unit 19 - Desktop MindMap

Here is my mind map for desktop influences and content;

Unit 66 & 67 - Detailed Robot I named Beastly **UPDATE**

I don't know why I called him Beastly, I just did hehe.

This is my second bash on 3D Studio Max making a robot, this robot has more detail than the last one with more features on the face. The main body is split in to 3 parts, top of the body is a cylinder, hose in the middle and cylinder at the bottom of the main body. The arms are complete but I'm missing the completed hands I designed on paper and this is the same for the feet. The legs need a motion or angle to them.

**UPDATE**

 

Comparison to a 1950s Toy robot, the main comparison would be the head, the eyebrow line linking to the nose line. Having a feature coming from the top of the head is present in my work and in this retro toy model. 3 differences between my work and the 1950s model is the head shape, eye shape and ears. My head is a cylinder were as the retro robot is a box. My eyes are squared and not round. Last the ears on mine are prisms and the toy model are cylinders. The rest of my robot is different to the 1950s robot, rest of the parts would come under robots from the 80s and 90s. The cylinder bendy body and articulation in the arms and legs are more advanced than the early period of toy robots.

I would of done a comparison of a professional piece of work done on 3DS Max but couldn't find a robot design based upon the same time period as my work.

Unit 66 & 67 - Basic Robot

Today I created a little basic robot on 3D Studio Max, the tutor Chris gave the group a quick tutorial of the software to show us how it's done. We started with the head then we moved on to the features of the face, the eyes, mouth and ears. I said where's the nose and Chris said they can't smell so they have no nose. I said to myself C3P0 has a nose. Anyway after moving, rotating and editing the objects of the face Chris show us the extended primitives to create the neck, we used the hose object to create the neck, it looks cool and we also used the hose for the legs and arms. My robot is obese so he is massive, possible American :) I placed feet on the robot, ends to his arms and then a nose with a pyramid. 

After this scene shot I decided to colour my robot and render it on the software.

This is the final cut of my first basic robot on 3D Studio Max.

Unit 19 - Desktop Genre Collage

This is the collage I made last week, the collage has 4 game genres on it. The collage is based upon images of games split in to the genres they relate to. For example, F.E.A.R. is a horror first person shooter, were as Half-life 2 is a Sci-fi action/adventure. The four genres are Horror, War, Fantasy and Sci-fi. The images I got wasn't completely to my taste but most of the images I got was from a EDGE magazine. Images included Half-life 2, Team Fortress 2, F.E.A.R., God of War Chains of Olympus, Metal Gear Solid and more. With my collage I place images in the area of the word, war games were bunched in the bottom left, Sci-fi in the top right. 

Description of the genres;

Horror:  There is a few sub-genres in horror but most would describe horror were it scares the player, makes the player uncomfortable in the environment, makes the action slow but sharp, sudden moments of fright.

Sci-fi: Futuristic environments, characters, creatures (aliens), abilities, weapons and more. Obvious examples would be Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, etc.

Fantasy: Mostly completely created worlds from the ground up. The world are quiet unrealistic hence the fantasy. Well known games in the genre are; world of warcraft, final fantasy, dragon's quest, The Elders Scrolls and more.


War: Usually based around world wars or possible wars or fantasize on a war based on none war such as the cold war. Usually based on massive epic battles. Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Brothers in Arms to name a few or war sims like Operation Flashpoint and ARMA.

Games, Genres & more

For this post I will talk about what are my favourite games, my favourite genres and genres I dislike. It will obviously begin with the games I like and love, These games are the reason I love this industry and why I want to be a part of this amazing industry but before that I will explain what I think is the most important parts of a game. For me the narrative and gameplay is king, graphics can suck if the two main elements work will in a game or even better then graphics isn't important. Graphics is a bonus in my book. Obviously there is more elements to games than these elements but a game needs a good story and to be enjoyable to play. Anyway I'll list my favourite games below.


The Legend of Zelda : Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye, The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess, XIII, Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer Red Alert, Populous The Beginning, Theme Hospital and Theme Park World, Halo Combat Evolved, Grand Theft Auto : Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas, Shadow of the Colossus, Resident Evil 3, 4 & 5, The Hitman series, Especially Blood Money
The Gran Turismo series, Especially 4 and no doubt 5 will be more than awesome.
Canis Canem Edit (Bully), The Formula 1 series (SCEI), The FIFA series, Star Wars Battlefront & 2, Worms & 3D, The Super Smash Bros. Series, Deus Ex Invisible War, Dead Rising, rFactor, Team Fortress 2, Red Dead Redemption, Both Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell & Rainbow Six series, Batman Arkham Asylum, Bioshock, The Elders Scrolls IV : Oblivion, Dead Space, Heavy Rain, Ratchet and Clank : Tools of Destruction, Fallout 3, Flower, fl0w, PAiN, PixelJunk Shooter, PixelJunk Monsters, Uncharted Drake's Fortune & Amongst Thieves, Metal Gear Solid : The Twin Snakes, Metal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid : Peace Walker.


Most of these games in my opinion have great gameplay & narrative. Obviously some games don't have a story behind them for example the sports titles I like.


Now I'll list the Genres I like.

Driving/Racing Simulations, Platformers, Action/Adventure games, Role Playing games, Sport games, Strategy games, Puzzle games, Simulation games, Interactive Media (Heavy Rain), Survival Horror, First Person Story games, Sandbox/Open World games, Some First Person Shooters (Team Fortress 2, Vegas 2 and Counter Strike), Some Third Person Shooters, Party games and Stealth.

Genres I Dislike.

Shooters in general because it's become too big, over gone it is. 
Fighting games in general, don't understand the appeal myself.
Rhythm games, Music, Singing etc. Just hate them.

Last but not least MMOs, I neither like the genre or dislike the genre. Never experienced what a MMO is like so I can't comment to be honest but probably the reason why I haven't tried it is I don't see a interest in it, I guess it's just me but each to their own.

A little more about me

My name is Robert Graham Briggs, I'm 20 years of age and this little post is about me.

Nothing makes me special. I’m an average lad with out spoken opinions. I guess I’m unique in my thinking, judgement and reasoning. I tell the truth. My motto is that; you have to know the truth and seek the truth and the truth will set you free.

What interests me in the gaming industry, well loads of things. The way they are made, the way people design them, come up with amazing ideas. I have ideas of my own for games, my own thoughts, It’s hard to explain really but hopefully I'll be able to explain them over the next 2 years in my work. I’ve been a gamer for around 15 years now and the industry is awesome.

My career goals are to pass the BND in Games Development, achieve at University and in work for a gaming company making games and putting forward my own ideas for games as well. The journey begins now and my main focus is the BND course.


I have duties and responsibilities as a student representative for my course at the student council, I love this duty. I have enjoyed my active position on the council for the last 5 months and will be at every council meeting for the foreseeable future. I love Shipley College, the college has give me great opportunities and experiences in my life. I am always willing to help improve the college as a whole with my active involvement and hopefully I helped out with the Ofsted inspection interview.


I'm a proud Atheist and Anti-theist, Aggressive one at that. Hate Religion in all it's forms. I like people who challenge Religion, especially the aggressive ones like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Fry, George Carlin and so on. Great quote from Christopher Hitchens "Religion Poisons Everything".


Other than loving computer & video gaming, I love sport. Football and Motorsport, My favourite teams are Real Madrid and Scuderia Ferrari. Real Madrid is more of a like than a love really, have always enjoyed their football and their incredible history but as for Ferrari, I love Ferrari. I love everything about Ferrari, without doubt Ferrari is very important to me. I will be designing Ferraris on this course, I love the team, the history, the people who work for Ferrari. Orgoglio de la Ferrari!

I enjoy films , TV and also one form of music, in my opinion the purest form of music... Symphony. Nothing like a bit of John Williams or Hans Zimmer.


I enjoy conspiracy theories, enjoy improving my knowledge and challenging my knowledge. I don't claim to know everything and I never will but the things I do know I have strong opinions about them.

So that's me pretty much.

3D renders on the web 1

Some renders on here I've seen on the Internet which I would like to aspire to achieve in the future.

Some of these renders are amazing and can easily be put in to any racing game on the market at the minute. Some were made in 2006 and the quality is superb. I would love to have the skills after this course and uni to develop a 3D model of the quality on show from these brilliant people.

http://njovey.com/3d/ferrari-f310/

Renders of the 1996 Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F310, Amazing quality and it was done in 2006. Just amazing.

http://njovey.com/3d/gp91/

Renders of the Scuderia Ferrari 643 & the Jordan 191. Again the same person with superb quality. This work was completed from scratch by the person in 2 weeks, incredible!

These cars are in the game on as well, a professional driving simulator I use myself rFactor.

Play time

First proper play with the software, I used several objects to create the scene. The objects I used was spheres, pyramids, tubes, a cylinder, torus, box and a cone. I used tools like the scale tool, move, select & rotate tool to edit the world. After completing it I used the perspective view and rotated around my created world. Before rendering the world in a 2D image I coloured each object to make it look cool.

I enjoyed using the software and for now it was quite easy but this wasn't that hard to be honest, Chris' tutorial was easy to follow and I enjoyed his teaching style.

Passion for excellence

Photo of a Ferrari 458 Italia on Gran Turismo 5, The car looks amazing and I aspire to do something similar to this in the future when I have the skills.

I got this picture from eurogamer's Gran Tursimo 5 article;

http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles//a/7/8/6/3/0/0/GT5_exclusive_FOR_ONLINE_ONLY_003.jpg.jpg

A Jouneys Start

Starting on a journey that will hopefully get me in a job that I will enjoy. It begins now with the BND extended Games Development course at Shipley College. I Hope to achieve high quality 3D models, making cars, space ships and next year human models. I will spend a lot of time learning the software, watching, understanding how to do the 3D modeling well.

After college I would like to go to Uni and develop higher skills. I'll love to have a job at a company who make car games; Polyphony Digital being one, the journey will be incredibly difficult but I will push myself to get a job similar at least.