The fellowship and other things

We applied to the Digital City fellowship scheme and got to the interview stage. Our pitch was for an innovative gaming experience on the iPhone combining education and gaming. Although we balls up the presentation, this angle seemed to impress. They agreed to take us on as long as we changed track and look at developing on other platforms, since everyone was scared to develop for the iPhone because of its over saturated market.

The next six months saw us developing our skills as a business and picking up vital technical skills along the way. We developed a prototype of our first edutainment title but werent sure how to sell or market it. We went through several itteration of where we wanted to market our games, from schools to corporate, but coming to the end of the scheme, we decided we needed to make some money in order to continue. This lead us to where we are now, developing simple flash games to make a quick buck. We still have our original intent in mind but paying the bills and feeding ourselves is our number 1 priority at the moment until we can spend some time on our origional ideas.

It starts....

Since october 2009 I have been trying to get my own computer games business up and running. This may sound impressive, but it is really quite a simple thing to do, if the opportunity is there.

It was the middle of the economic ressession by the time I finished my degree. Any hope in finding a job within the industry was out the window when i decided not to do a placement year in my second year of uni, not that i could have predicted a ressession but this would have helped tremendously! Companies were going bust left right and center which ment there were a whole host of experienced people applying for the same jobs as I was.

So i decided that the only way i could continue doing the things i was most passionate about was to do it off my own steam and start my own company. I contacted a few people i knew who could programe and do artwork and soon enough i had a team of passionate gamers at my side, ready and willing to make a living making games.

Dawn of a new day

This is my first Blog posts for a long time, almost a year in fact, but i thought whats the point of a Blog if it is never updated? So here is to a new beggining of (hopefully) regular blog updates!

I thought, what better way to start this new era than with an update on current affairs. I would concider myself quite modest and introverted, so it feels quite strange to delve into my life and write about it for all to see, but things have to be done in order to generate sucess and interest, so here goes nothing....

Bolt animation

Here is the finished bolt animation. I had a lot of trouble with the rig and couldn't make it work at all so the movement in the last shot is shockingly bad. I only used one quick shot of the bolt attempting to get up and failing.

more animation

This is another animation which took about 30 mins. I was told never to go back to an animation but to see the flaws, leave it and move on to the next.

Character animation - walk cycles

Here is my first attempts at walk cycles

Texturing techniques

Here i explored different techniques such as alpha stretching and colour mixing to create a water effect. Bump mapping and custom bump maps and some lighting effects.

Music Video Scenes

I have volunteered to help make some 3D content for a music video for a local Rap band. A test of an alley way has been created, the theme is grimy back alley. The scene is textured with bump maps

Animation Production

This module has given me opportunity to explore XSI's animation capabilities. The following video a version of the final animation showing a space ship and ship dock. The door opening mechanism is powered by a small robot and a domino effect of interaction.

Game influences

One of my favorite games is a 2001 title called ICO, made by Sony entertainment. This game is described as a minimalistic action adventure where the player controls a young boy with horns. The aim of the game is to help a girl named Yorda, who you meet at the beginning of the game, escape from a castle they are imprisoned in.

Throughout the game you must solve puzzles while leading Yorda by the hand and defending her from shadowy creatures.

The gameplay is very simplistic. There is one button for attack, one for interactions, one to jump and one you must hold to grab hold of Yorda's hand.

The reason i enjoyed this game so much was, because of the simplistic nature of the game, while playing, I could really feel a connection between the characters. The castle is big and overwhelming and the shadow creatures where a pain in the arse. It really gave a sence of connection between me and Yorda since you are dragging her around everywhere and cant complete the game without keeping her alive and well.

more can be read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ico

Character developments

The characters have been modeled with different types of rendering passes and textures to get the right look.Here are some screenshots of these renders;

My work - other modules

I have been working on three main projects this year. In Animation Group Project, i am the producer for a one minuet animation which is being developed and created using 3Ds Max and XSI. My role in the group is Producer, while motivating the group members and keeping the vision of the product on track with the designs and schedule. All the group feel that this project is going really well and on track to our expectations.

Working as a producer has given me more of a back seat role to the production process but it has given me a chance to work passivley on all the roles of production, trying to keep everyone on track and keeping things rolling.

For computer animation production i am working on creating an "alien/sci-fi" scene in XSI which contains simple animations. For this project i am designing a futuristic city scape.

The architecture designs will be based on technology, nature and sustainability in resources. This means each building will be designed in a way which works with nature and the earths natural resources to create a sustainable environment for humans to live at peace in a sustainable and technological environment.

This mock up image shows a sun tower which is used for collecting the suns energy to power the surrounding buildings;

Environments and events

I have chosen to create most of the environments using very simple geometry and flat planes with textures to help keep rendering time to a minimum as well as saving me a lot of time modeling environments.

There will be a total of 6 events throughout the animation, each one designed on the characters in the event. Each event will have the two main characters, Bolt and Brush, and one of the secondary characters of either Hammer, Screwdriver, Bulb or Pipe. Also there will be two puzzle events. The purpose is the demonstration of the game designs for each situation and hopefully an overall feel to the game.

Character and event designs

Here are some character concept designs

Developments

Bolt and brush developments

Some of my work

Most of my designs are still on paper and will be scanned and uploaded asap.

Here is a brush i have stared modeling

Inspiration

levels for the game were inspired by M.C.Escher with his twisted paintings.




I wanted the characters in the game to be inanimate objects with a slight awareness of their own uses and presence in this world but still believable enough for an audience to connect with them. I was inspired by the Pixar animation Wall-e. The character in this is the last robot on earth which compacts rubbish into small squares with its body. In the time it has been alone on earth it has created a personality and starts to show emotions. I will try and make Bolt and Brush portray similar attributes in my animations

What i hope to achieve

The gameplay trailer will show off modeling, rigging, animation and games design. A game trailer will show off some story and/or gameplay elements of the game to try and get people to buy it. An example for the game Mirrors Edge

Animation

Because i am focusing on games, low polygon models will be used.

The animation will focus on different events from the games design, collaborating into a gameplay trailer.

Research

Getting into the games industry will require me to show potential employers a 'show reel' and samples of my work.

Research will be focused on finding reference materials to help with the animation and the use of tutorials and guides to help with modeling, rigging and animating to help me reach this goal.

Project Outline

My aims for this project are to create visual content for a game to support on going work which is at a standard to show potential employers in the games industry.

I have been designing characters and events for a game so this would be a good opportunity to create visual content for the game idea.

This will include 3D models and animation

To create all that i need i will be using XSI, Photoshop and premiere.

I may also use other programs to help with pre production and post production.