Unit 70 LO1 - Brainstorm

Our group, Red Hawk, looked at how we would develop the results of our survey which was conducted earlier in the year. We considered 3 themes revolving around Sci-fi horror; slow pace horror, fast pace horror or silly horror. Slow horror similar to Amnesia, fast horror like Doom 3 or something silly like Dead Rising. Each team member detailed their ideas and reasons for their ideas.


My ideas;
- Slow paced horror with silly horror elements due to time constraints.
- Dialogue and traditional transition screens dropped with text in the environment or text coming out at the screen.
- Physical presence in the trailer rather than spectrum activity.
- Milner field house (Haunted house)


Key ideas noted were Lewis Radio (Themed radio broadcast), Titus Tomb (under his Statue), Importance of horror content (zombies, ghosts, psychological themes and atmospheric music).


Key must haves in the trailer;
- Team Logo
- Game Logo
- Splash Screens
- Distribution Logos (Steam, App Store, Android Market)
- Age Ratings (BBFC, PEGI)


Team ideas below detailed in the image;

Music and Feelings

Only certain types of musical genres make me feel anything. Most music is passive to me, I either don't care about it or it doesn't do anything for me. My favourite genre is symphony, in my opinion it's the purest form of music. Instruments do more for me rather than lyrics. The English language makes words sound so redundant; Latin, Greek amongst others make words sound more appealing... for me anyway. I like the aggressive, strong or powerful notes in symphony pieces. I love the velocity of tempo, the high frequency as well as the short powerful notes heard with brass instruments.

 

This score features both elements I enjoy in this form of music.



One of my favourite scores ever; the trombone adds to the piece, without it I wouldn't enjoy the music.






This is the case for both God of War III pieces as well, Greek lyrics add to the sounds heard.

Questionnaire & Results

Questionnaire


After gathering data for our individual research papers about Saltaire, we had to construct a questionnaire to ask people visiting or located in Saltaire about their thoughts on making a virtual educational trailer based on Saltaire. Each group member had to create their own template, we talked about relevant questions that would be important to include so people known what it was about. Other details were considered; logos relating to our group were added, Introduction sentences so people had additional information and a thank you note at the end.

The team then considered which one was going to be used for the project, my design was chosen as it looked professional but another members questions replaced mine as it was easier and more understandable than my selection.

We than went around the village of Saltaire asking visitors, shop owners, students and staff to take part in our questionnaire. 30 copies were printed and 30 copies were completed within the hour. The results of the questionnaire will follow in a further update, the questionnaire above is the final design used for our research.

Results

The experience was different from other surveys I've done before, it had to be done quickly as we had little time to collate the results afterwards. I wouldn't say I learned much besides the designing side of questionnaires including design for results document. After finishing the design I converted it to a pdf again so it can be published on here.


The public during the survey period were somewhat cooperative with only 2 people not willing to complete it in the time we needed it done by, luckily we recovered the 2 incomplete questionnaire and handed them to two other people who completed them for us.


Collating the evidence was quite easy as some of my team members had done it before. Tally marks were made for each question and responding answers, I'd say the hardest part was just transferring the information from 1 sheet to 6 members.


In terms of skills I believe every team member produced a decent document, I was satisfied with my results excel document also. A decision wasn't made on who made the best document. 

The layout I chose was a general design with little blue shades over the options to make the document easier to read for people interested in the results of our survey. (Question Keys on the right should state Question 10 Keys instead of 8)

Outcome

Results of the survey showed that females aged 16-18 were are target audience and they indicated for a modern/futuristic setting with the main location centred around Roberts Park. The viewing platform most popular in our survey was YouTube, this makes sense as its the leading platform for viewing videos on the internet. Although females in this age range maybe our target audience, we can and probably will cater for a broader range of audiences.

Professional Example

I like to construct a modern looking park with similar architecture to either Valencian modern buildings or middle eastern architecture. The shapes and styles are completely unique to anything else in the world, the simple colours used also adds to their uniqueness. Here is a visual example of a 3D park that I'd like my team's replicate.

(A Link for the image above.)

Unit 6 - LO1

Unit 6 LO1 RGB

Updates will probably come in the near future.

Red Hawk Studio Members

Team Members - Skills - Weaknesses - Blog


Ivo Anusic - Team Leader / All Rounder - Quiet - http://ivolution93.blogspot.com


Lewis Corcoran - Co-Leader / 3D Skills - Talks too much - http://31corky92.blogspot.com


Robert Briggs - Leadership Skills - 3D and Animation - http://rgbsf.blogspot.com


Joe Connell - Concepts and Ideas - 3D and Arrogance - http://wolfsaiyan.blogspot.com


Alex Forbes-Wake - Photoshop - Quiet, Lack of Motivation and 3D - http://kellinn.blogspot.com


Adam Thompson - 3D Skills and Photoshop - Gets Distracted Easy - http://itzzaddyt01x.blogspot.com

Team Fill Chart

The Return, Changes and Project Groups

After 10 long weeks away from the saddle college finally started again, the first week was just a welcome back with a 3 hour presentation about changes and what will be the next steps for the returning students after this academic year. We was given information about the new changes, introduction to our new learning coach and given UCAS information for students interested in HE. In the afternoon we was given a brief from our course coordinator to do a research paper about the Saltaire village as this would be linked to the final major project. We was advised to do a site visit and to decide with caution on what direction we wanted to take this final project on as the group would be split into smaller groups in the near future.

The very next day me and two other students did a site visit to Saltaire and collected a large amount of evidence for the research paper. The paper was completed and updated on September the 12th, more updates may follow.

Week 2 was more of the same, we had the last ever Aimhigher event take please in Victoria Hall which give pretty much the same information about UCAS and access to HE. We was given our IDs (my second of the week), introduced to recover our gmail accounts (did work before this week and now doesn't) and given small tasks to complete before the 3rd week. 
In addition to this I had a rather interesting Thursday of that week; experiencing the pointless placement of being in the study centre with slow computers when a course like this require high end machines. The slot is usually 3 hours but due to my duties at the college that was reduced to 2 as I was asked to make a stall for the Freshers Fair. The stall was set up to promote the student voice at Shipley, ask opinions of the students, advertise the council & the proposed union and give out information about NUS extra cards. The event went well and I'm extremely pleased about it.

The afternoon wasn't so brilliant though, level 3 students were asked to meet in Victoria Hall to select what qualification they individually wanted to study to get what they need to progress in education or employment after college. The options were GCSE Maths of English, Functional Skills Maths or English or Functional project for the year. I'd submitted my decision last year and in the first week this year. My details wasn't put on the GCSE list and I had to wait an 1 hour to sign you for GCSE Maths. Hopefully this will get sorted in due course.

Week 3; The week started by the dreaded group selection, I say dreaded due to past year groups complaining by the selections made but to be honest I'm satisfied with the selection. I like my group and I'm sure all students in their specific groups our happy with the selection process. Each group member were given reasons for their selection and reasons for positions in their groups. I'm happy and comfortable with the selection, positioning and thought the reasoning behind it was well thought threw.

After the selections we was given our first group task of coming up with our group name for the academic year. We all had to come up with 3 names minimum and then design 5 different and unique logos for the chosen name. My names were; Lazy Gamers, Horsing About, Reckless Makers and What is Physics!

After everyone voted I was asked to design logos for the name Reckless Makers. The vote process was done by tally chart throughout the process. My 5 designs had different meanings to them and I'll list them below.

1st design. Abstract text, it's less design but it can work some times, hence Sucker Punch and Blizzard who both use abstract text for their logos.

2nd design. The initials over lapping each other. the R resting in front of M with the name sitting underneath the initials.

3rd design. Initials again but having the M with pointing ends and having the left end stabbing through the R.

4th design. Same as the 3rd but having something in place representing something reckless. Having the initials breakthrough a wall with bricks sitting on the floor and on the initials as well with the text at the base like graffiti on a wall.

5th design. Train push cart, tag line "correct vehicle, wrong parts". The push cart has 3 train wheels and one car wheel plus instead of the levers to move the push cart it has a seesaw.
Again a vote decided the outcome and after the vote I was asked to develop idea 5 further. I was given advice on how to improve it by adding the initials on the seesaw at either end and keeping the colour selection of the initials (R being red and M being black).

I began to develop the push cart after the vote, printing and sourcing reference images to support my design. After a more detailed hand drawn sketch was made and opened up Photoshop to start work on a digital copy. I set the print size to A6, made it landscape and set the dpi to 300. I used basic shapes and lines to get the cart looking just right then I merged sections of the cart for additional modifications. During the process of adding colour I had some issues due to me adding strokes to the lines, the strokes helped me see the formation of the parts. The fix was simple as I used the magic eraser to deleted the added colour in the strokes. Once all the mistakes were fixed I used the magic wand tool to highlight set individual parts to add gradients, mixing grays to add a metal look to most of the components. I also included drop shadows for additional detail. Slight modifications were made towards the end with nuts added in replacement of standard circles, the nuts connected the wheels with the new industrial style axel.

Original Hand Drawn Image

Final Design

Source Images

The final vote happened once all of our individual logos were complete, the winning design came from team member Joe Connell and we was advised to mix the logo Joe did with my style. 

Joe Connell's Red Hawk Studio Design

I followed the same process as my own logo; A6, landscape and 300dpi. I used a grid this time to get the opposite sides symmetrical, again lines were used with added weight to stop patches appearing between the lines. Then I added a gradient onto the hawk with two tones of red, purest red with a darker red which went across the hawk. The text was done the same way with lines and I added a more metallic gradient with tones of gray. In addition I was shadows on both the hawk and text to give them more definition. I wasn't 100% pleased with the final product so I also added bevel and emboss to both of them which improved the text by no end.

This is the final product.

Other team images.

Music Studio Introduction & Rules

In this academic year we'll be creating a game trailer, game trailers wouldn't work all that well with just the content being shown on screen. Music adds the depth to a silence image and more often than not can define that content forever.

With the game trailer we'll create we will have to create an accompanying music track or theme to give the trailer another dimension. This task could be quite interesting if done with care and quality.

Before we was given the full introduction we was given ground rules on what shouldn't happen or what we shouldn't do in the music studio.


1st. No food or drink is aloud in the music studio.


2nd. Don't abuse your ears, use then with care. Don't listen to something too aloud.


3rd. Use correct carrying techniques when carrying heavy equipment like large speaker.

4th. Use the correct cabling technique when using wires, tape wires to the floor to stop people tripping over and use the "pull and twist" motion to cable up wires properly.

After the rules were given to us we was shown some of the equipment we'll be using in the next 8 months. It wasn't a big tour of the studio but rather a small tour to get us to know the basics. The first task was to learn the "pull and twist" to understand that using the correct cabling technique will make the equipment last longer and less prone to failure.


The next piece of equipment we was shown was the microphones, two models were shown but they were very similar, one used for instruments and the other for vocalists. The vocalist mic had a metal sphere on it whereas the instrumental mic didn't. You can pop off the metal sphere on the vocal mic and it's pretty Identical to the instrumental mic.


The tutor then shown us the mixing desk, with this piece of equipment you can do a load of different things to modify the sound coming out of the speaker. He stated that channel 1 on the mixing desk was no different to the other channels and had nothing special over the other channels. He then told us what each dial did on the mixing desk, I will list the functionally of the dials below;


Gain - The gain dial is simply a volume controller, it controls the volume coming out of the speaker.


Equalizer - This section has 3 dials that can modify high, medium and low sound pitches, you can play with these settings and cancel out specific pitches you may not want when recording something.


Digital Effects - This dial will modify the sound in different and strange ways. It's also links to other dials on the top right of the device that can add additional effects to the sounds coming out.


Pan - This simply gives the user the ability of panning the audio from side to side or keeping it level for balanced sound. For example, one can use the dial to pan completely right and only the right speaker will put out audio or visa versa.


Then we was given the opportunity play with the microphones, group by group we walked forward to connect the mics to the mixing desk. We was allowed to play with the dials and to understand how they worked with the mics. Most if not all tested the functions and spoke to here the sounds change with the modifiers.

This pretty much concluded the first tour of the music studio, we looked at smaller mixing devices that were connected to the computers in the room and a larger desk connected to the recording room. We all did the "pull and twist" to cable up the wires and finished the tour at that point.

Unit 13 LO1 - Types of Jobs (Salaries)

This is an expansion to my previous work on types of jobs in the games industry, please visit my main blog post for more information here regarding LO1 (Slide 15-17).
 
The three jobs I looked at offer different salaries, all three positions are also important rolls in the work force; level design can drive the story when done well, hence Half-life or Zelda. Sound designers in recent years have transformed the way we listen to games, prime example would be Red Dead Redemption. Texture artists can add high detail to pieces of work plus realism to the product that can make the experience more believable and enjoyable.

Several links I'll provide will show how each working job in the games industry has different salary levels and the difference in wages in different countries.

This link is rather old but does show have different jobs have different salary levels, it also includes differences in salaries between the USA and the U.K.

Granted the link is 3 years out of date but when this was posted it shows the U.K. had a much higher wage salary for top developers than the USA but the U.K. has much lower wage salary for new developers in all sectors too. The USA seems to have a more averaged out wage packet for developers although if you was a top earner you'd idea like to be working in the U.K. according to these figures.


Another link provided here shows salaries again from different sectors, the highest paid jobs according to this link are; Directors, Executive Producers, Programmers and Musicians. On average these ain't always the best paid jobs but according to this source the information they collected showed the highest paid developers were in these jobs and they were paid much higher than other developers in different sectors in the games industry.


To finish off this segment I'd like you to look at this link regarding the average paid developers' salary in the U.K. According to this link, U.K. developers are slightly richer than the previous year, this link is 1 year old so salaries could of improved even more so over the last year as well. Figures have improved by £1.500 in the last year, looking in to it further though it has become clear that it isn't £32,000 on average per developer but rounded off by region and job role so some jobs will be paid higher with others paid lower.

Unit 1 - Full Presentation

Unit 3 - Full Presentation

Unit 69 LO5 - Full Presentation

Unit 69 LO4 - Comic Strip

Click Image to view the original size comic strip.

Unit 69 LO3 - Full Presentation

Unit 67 LO4 - Full Presentation

The video embedded in the presentation won't work but links should be provided with the video. Please visit my other blog post for the direct link to the video here.

Unit 67 LO3 - Animation

First ever attempted at 3D animation using CAD software (3D Studio Max).

Unit 67 LO2 - Full Presentation

The video embedded in the presentation won't work but links should be provided with the video.

Unit 33 LO4 - Full Presentation

The video embedded in the presentation won't work but links should be provided with the video. Please visit my other blog post for the direct link to the video here.

Unit 33 LO3 - Animation

Some frame rate issues and had trouble finding a software package that would convert file types. Watermark in the middle is due to a trail software license. Overall I'm satisfied with the animation and the full advert.

Unit 65 LO4 - Full Presentation

Unit 69 LO1-3 - Full Presentation

All videos embedded in the presentation won't work but links should be provided with all the videos.

Unit 13 LO4 - Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet of events over a project.

Unit 13 LO2-3 - Full Presentation

Unit 13 LO1 - Full Presentation

Unit 33 LO2 - Full Presentation

All videos embedded in the presentation won't work but links should be provided with all the videos.

Unit 66 LO4 - Full Presentation

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Unit 66 LO3 - Completed Model

Here is my final renders and screenshots of my 3D model. I textured the car with two different colours to see how they looked.

Unit 66 LO2 - Full Presentation

All videos embedded in the presentation won't work but links should be provided with all the videos.

Unit 66 LO1 - Full Presentation

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Action Jackson, Fix Up UK - Motivational Session

Action Jackson came to Shipley College as a part of the Aim Higher services available to students in the United Kingdom. Action Jackson has his own company that's called Fix Up UK to help motivate students to be inspired to do work and enjoy life. is motto was; "Success is not magic but hard work" or words to that extent. He shared information about his past and what he is doing now with his several businesses. After reflecting on his history he started activities to motivate the students present at the event. Several students got involved with Jackson's motivational activites including myself. He just asked me what I wanted to do and I replied with "Game Developer at a high production company." Jackson got other students involved with the event. Jackson also played the guitar and was dancing throughout.

The event was fun but most of the motivational information presented I already know. Not my kind of thing but fun all the same. I left a comment about what me and my brother think about people who want to work and have a passion, "Don't be satisfied with something you don't want. Don't do something at you hate. Find a passion, enjoy what your doing with your passion and enjoy life."

Overall I'll give the event 7/10.

Unit 65 - Planning for Animated Game

Completed Unit 65 Learning Outcome 2 Assignment Document.

Unit 33 - History of Animation **Updated**

Completed Assignment of LO1 for Unit 33.
YouTube embedded videos in the presentation do not work.

Unit 19 - Evaluation

My project began several months ago when I was doing the desktop project, the 4 themes was decided at that point; Fantasy, War, Horror and Sci-Fi. We needed to do 5 icons for this project in total so I linked the 5th icon with work from another project I've been doing along side this one. At the start of this course I playing around with 3D Studio Max, learning the basic techniques to create basic shapes. One week in the 3D sessions we made a car, very basic but still holding the principals of what a car is, this basic car gave me the idea of having my 5th icon to be motor sport related. Originally I wanted it to be related to my favourite team in motor sport being Ferrari but this would of been easy and probably effected my grade as it wasn't an original design. So instead the 5th icon would be related to the model that gave me the Ferrari idea, my basic model I created a while back. The basic car which would ultimately be my 5th icon.

So going back a few steps in the process, to continue from the collage of the 4 themes we had to do research on icons and symbols that are famous or well known like Egyptian Hieroglyphics and road signs for example. We had to analyse these icons and what was the meaning and purpose behind them. Doing so helped us understand how our own icons could have the same effect in it having a purpose and meaning or relevance. After looking at the icons is was important to look at the platform we would be displaying these icons on to. We looked at the history of Apple, the varies products they sell, the differences between the last two iPhone models and for me the differences between the iPhone 4 Vs. the LG Optimus 2X. This give us more information on the brand behind the iPhone and the competition against in the smartphone market.

Another important step in this process was looking at interactive media, this is the industry I'm working for so it was important for me to look at not just games but other elements like Television forums like BBC F1 forum. I also looked at the Coca Cola Company with it's unique graphics used for their logos and still ads. Finally for this first part of the process I had a look at BAF10 and what Sony presented there, they gave people more insight on 3D images and how they worked. Also showing people games using 3D like Gran Turismo 5 and Killzone 3.

Next up was creating the concepts for the 4 icons in their specific themes. Before this I made my proposal of how it will run. Multiple drawings for each specific theme was made in the process with detail of what they are and colour palettes chosen for them. After the concepts were complete discussions happened to decided which ones will be taken to the next level. This included design on Ferrari which was dropped for the 3D model as stated above. Once the 4 individual icons from each theme were chosen the final drawing had to be produced for further production. All 4 designs were done and scanned on to a computer for PhotoShop manipulation. 


PhotoShop work began to develop the icons further, this brought them to life by introducing the colours that was mentioned in the concept sheets. As well as the colours, effect with brush types and use FX tools were used to the icons look 3D. Both these elements help my drawings look better. FX tools used were shadows, glows, gradient & Bevel and emboss. *A log sheet* will follow one from this evaluation to detail all the techniques used on Photoshop.

Fantasy Icon

 War Icon

Horror Icon

Sci-Fi Icon

Motor Sport Icon

Now I'll just do a brief summary of how I think each icon went. 

For fantasy my initial idea was to have a floating island, similar to what you may have seen in James Cameron's Avatar. For several reasons this wasn't possible, first of all my drawings skills ain't all that special so it won't of looked all that and then the time to manipulate it would of taken probably longer. A though it wasn't what I was intending originally I think my fantasy icon worked out quite well. The colours I was going for and the FX have worked out quite nicely.

With war I wanted to have a dirty and gritty icon, plus I wanted a flag to go with that. This icon purpose was to remember the lost in both wars. Overall it worked out alright and doing its job, even though I couldn't have the flag dirty or gritty for reasons based on respect it still holds its message across I think. Again the FX helped make it look even better than what it could have.

Horror was the perfect icon in my opinion, instead of blood or cheap thrills I wanted something simple and not scary at all. I basically penciled an outline of how a Owls head looks like and its eyes. then scanned this in and let the colours and FX do its magic. A simple silhouetted owl with only it eyes and beams of light behind it. Later I added circle to represent the moon for more detail. Worked out exactly how I wanted it to be.

The Sci-Fi icon started out like it is now but without colour and FX. The original bland and basic icon looked nice and fine. On this one and think I went overboard with the colours needed for it. I if was to go back and changed anything in this project I think this would be the main one. The idea and drawing was sound, colour use wasn't.

Obviously the car idea which was the fifth icon spawned from my love of motor sport, I wanted it to be Ferrari related and that wasn't possible for this project so instead I based it off another project I was doing in 3D. As mention above the basic car helped me with this icon greatly but I did leave a little hint of Ferrari in it with the colours behind the car. The colours of Italian national flag.

This is the final image with all my final icons on the iPhone 4.

The above image shows professional examples of iPhone icons, most of these are official iPhone icons with my own made icons on the iPhone as well.

For more details of my progress in my work please look at my blog post titled Unit 19 - LO1-LO3.

Unit 19 - LO1-LO3

Lewis Guarniere - Creature DT

On Monday the 14th of February 2011 Lewis came to do a presentation about working in the industry of media, specifically film but it linked to gaming as well. Lewis talked more than just what happening in the industry though and touched on how he got there, the work he had to do before getting to his current position and his experiences along the way.


Lewis started by showing a show reel of his work in film and advertisement. Several advertisements that was recognisable by everybody and especially the films he has worked on. After showing his show reel he begin talking about his experiences through uni life and advised people to do what you can and not good over board with your ideas and the scale of the projects you want to do. He advised people to get a foot in the door anyway, doing this can lead to better jobs. He went in detail about his job experiences first as a runner, his incident with Ridley Scott and his all night render farm maintenance. 

One student asked about his wages in the jobs he's done. £11,000 as a runner, £26,000 in his first senior job role working on advertisements and now £36,000 at Double Negative. Lewis wanted to show everyone the Channel 4 indent that was filmed in Dubai, he asked everyone have many building in the indent was computer generated. The number was over 50% with most of the detail in and around the panning camera shoot of Dubai being added in by Lewis and the teams he worked with. Plenty of questions was asked and answered by Lewis on the advert, on how it was made, the effects used and budget of the advert. Lewis said the project was ideal because of the conditions of the location and the agreements with the companies involved. This brought the morning presentation to a close. 

Unfortunately for me I had exams on at the same time as the afternoon session. I heard Lewis asked people to consider everything going on in a production and audience members completed brainstorms of what may go on during the whole process. When I did eventually return to the event Lewis was showing the process elements of 3D in all of it's stages. I'd seen similar demonstrations like this before, mainly from Guerrilla Games a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Guerrilla Games did a application demonstration through the PlayStation Network called Killzone 2: Behind the Bullet.



All in all it was a brilliant experience, hopefully more speaker will be able to come and discuss the industry in the future at Shipley College for the future students.

Double Negative Visual Effects

Unit 66 & 67 - Texture Wrapping

Today we looked at UVW Unwrap, with this we started with a basic model of a house. We selected the model on the edit tab and when down the list to Unwrap UVW. Then we selected each flat face of the structure, all surfaces must be flat or problems will happen. Each individual surface was unwrapped and put in place. All the faces need to fit in a square shape, this is were all the textures can be edited in another application.

 I chose Photoshop CS3, this application lets me modify the surfaces easy. I took a screen shot of the surfaces in place and pasted it on a new PSD file. Started with a new layer and used the polyonal lasso tool. This tool allows me to just go over the surfaces I need, as for the top I used a box selector and filled in the colour I wanted. I added one more layer for a door I picked off the internet, deleted all the addition area around the door and placed it on the first surface (As seen in the image above). Then I copied the original layer and lighten it and turned down the opacity. Furthermore I added a dark layer to all the faces in the new layer on the top.

This is the finished basic texture for the building, I went back to 3D Stuido Max and used the M key to bring up the material editor. With this I placed the texture I made using Photoshop.