My new blog

Hi there peeps just thought i would post up my link for my new blog i have created to help me with my Model Book that i have to compile for one of the modules. So here it is ive just posted up the work from the pre-production stage for now but feel free to pop round and make some comments :)

http://stevenchabeaux.blogspot.com/

Friday Tutorials

Hi Ste and Dave

Just in case you're coming in tomorrow for a tutorial can you make it after Midday. Dean is giving a presentation to year 2 at 11:00 in J313, and me and Stas are sitting in so they won't be available until Midday.

Production Module Contact Details

Hi Part-timers,

Here's the list of staff who will be responsible for your final year/module. Click on the name to email them.

Module Leader:
Stas Krakiewicz
(contact for all module and tutorial guidance)

Specialist-tutor:
Dean Betton
(contact for tutorial guidance)

Pastoral Tutor:
Marianne McCracken
(contact for BA related guidance and confidential issues)

Part-time Enrolment Date and Room

Hi part-timers,

Its enrolment time next week and due to different work schedules it looks like it will be spread across the two days. Either way we will do exactly the same thing.

I have a simple form printed for you to sign to enroll. Then I'll give you an initial briefing on your final project. This will be followed by time for you to write up your own brief based upon your rationale. So bring with you a copy of your rationale and a pen.

Those coming in on Wednesday 16th will be enrolling in room K202 in the Business College building. That is the building next to SKB with the glass entrance facing into the car park.

Those coming in on Friday 18th will be enrolling in room J313 in the SKB building (the games room).

The sessions will begin at 9:30am and last all morning.

New year Final Year

Hi Part-timers,

Hope you've had a good summer. Enrollment is nearly here for your last year and module before eventual graduation.

Your final Production module will be self-directed with specialist-tutor support by Stas and Dean. The emphasis is on you delivering what you've planned during the Pre-Production module. If during the summer you've changed your plans that's fine as the beginning of the next module will give you some time to revise your idea.

Apart from enrollment you'll have very little contact with me, as you'll be arranging tutorials with your specialist-tutors. Remember keep them updated on a regular basis to avoid any problems. It is usually fatal to a student if they try to go-it-alone without showing progress to your tutors… silly errors or bad judgments are made this way.

Tony and Kev are coming in on Wednesday 16th September at 9:30am (room TBC) to enroll, as their supervisors cannot swap days to Friday. Steve and Dave, I don't know where you stand regarding a day change to Friday for this next year. If you can it takes pressure off of Stas and Dean (see previous July posts). Do you both want to also come in to enroll on Wednesday 16th or the following Friday? Let me know ASAP so I can plan.

On enrollment day I will also brief you on the last module - especially about the model book 30% component of your final mark.

You've all had a fantastic 1st year with some fantastic grades. In your final year DON'T CHASE THE GRADE. Just concentrate upon doing a great project that answers the learning outcomes. Be ambitious but don't blind yourself.

I look forward to you all succeeding in July as BA (Hons) graduates and starting a new chapter in your lives.

Important message for part-time students only

Hi part-timers,

In my Monday, 6 July post "September Dates' I proposed a day change to Friday for part-time students, to ease the timetabling of Stas and Dean. I have heard from one of you who has encountered very real work-related problems with such a change, and that is understandable and I've made arrangements. So far I haven't heard from the rest of the group if this change is fine or equally problematic.

My problem that I forsaw in July is that year 1 and 2 are timetabled at the beginning of the week in J313 with Stas and Dean. In your first year Wednesday was great for me and Kate to be timetabled with you, but between September and December Stas and Dean are locked into heavy delivery.

If you let me know how you are fixed ASAP I can begin to make some provision if there is any problems. Currently Dean and Stas are on summer leave, and so will I be from Monday. So if a change of day to Friday is out completely for everyone, then I will need to arrange some dispensation with both of them to accommodate tutorials during a very busy teaching schedule. That's not to say it cannot be done.

Your final Production module will be pretty much self-directed by yourselves and specialist-tutor tutorials would naturally only take place every few weeks. So I perceive that if Friday is fully or even partially out due to work, then I would negotiate a tutorial schedule with both of them which may mean a lunch-time or end-of-day tutorial. Flexibility and compromise I think will be the motto for the first term of next year. Timetables change in January so things may become less problematic.

If you can do Friday then that is fine, either way please tell me ASAP.

Have a great summer and I'll see you mid-September.

Personal Finances

Hi all, new and returners,

Just a friendly reminder that if you are seeking student loans, LEA funding, grants etc. sort out your paperwork now rather than later. The later you leave it the further down the respective waiting lists you slip.

This may mean that any money you may require in the new academic year may be severely delayed. Some students last year didn't have any money until November because they left it so late to get the paperwork done.

Any queries the guy to arrange an appointment with is Keiron Potter in Student Services.

Have a good summer.

Potential New Students

Potential New Students

If you didn't get a UCAS form in by the deadline then you will still need to complete one. Visit Student Services, as you will now be classed as 'Clearing'.

September Dates

Hi Part-Timers and new Full-Timers,

I'll confirm dates, times and rooms towards the end of August but for now here are some provisional dates for your diary.

Full-Timers
First day is proposed as Wednesday 16th September at 9:30am. Your contact day of lectures, group crits and tutorials will be on Wednesdays.

Part-Timers
Now that you are into your last module I'm proposing a day change to Friday's. This is so that your specialist-tutors Stas and Dean can be timetabled with you in J313. Can you discuss this with your managers and make arrangements?

BA (Hons) Entertainment Media Design 2009 Degree Showreels

The following work are short showreels showing the work of some of this year's graduates and part-time students who will graduate next year. I will be uploading showreels to YouTube soon, and when I do I will replace the videos on this page with embedded YouTube versions.

---

Karen Costello
Graduate 2009
The Eye of the Way - RPG Horror Game Level
5 mins 45 secs

---

>coming soon<
Dave Roberts
Graduate 2009
The Poignancy of Musical Memory

---

Jennifer Swann
Graduate 2009
Trailblazers - FPS Game Level
1 min 22 secs

---

Steve Chabeaux
Part-time Student
The Equivalents - Character Design
2 mins 18 secs

---

Dave Jones
Part-time Student
Isle of Mann TT Project Pre-production
2 mins 18 secs

---

Kevin McKenzie
Part-time Student
Kaupang - Viking Beat-em-Up Level Pre-production
2 mins 04 secs

---

Anthony Weekes
Part-time Student
S.W.O.R.D. - Character Design
2 mins 04 secs

---

Grades have been posted

Hi all,

Keep an eye out for a package over the next few days as your grades and, where we had two copies, a copy of your bound dissertation have now been posted.

Jenny and Miles I need an address in order to send your parcel. Please email me ASAP.

Cheers

VideoGame Nation

If any of you have any free time go and see the VideoGame Nation exhibition. Its is on at URBIS in Manchester. If you don't know your way around Manchester its easy to find as the URBIS building is in the centre of town (its worth the trip just to see the building).

The exhibition charts the history of video gaming, with emphasis on the British input (quite considerable). Its a hands on exhibition and if video gaming is your thing, its a guaranteed good time. Entrance is three quid, I don't play video games and I still thought it was worth it. You will also come away with loads of ideas.

After you have seen all that VideoGame Nation has to offer go one flight up and see the State of the Art exhibition, now this should blow your socks off and could really inform your work. Its billed as the latest contemporary art coming out of New York, sixteen artists and its free!

Go see.

DaveR

CAB completed - grades coming soon

Hi all,

The CAB met today and the grades and awards have been set. I will mail out the feedback sheets next week which contain the breakdown of your grades with feedback. I believe Huddersfield will post the grade transcript summary to you. So be patient you eager beavers… not long to go now.

The board were impressed by the degree and the achievements. Although I am not going to post the grades here, as they are confidential, I can say that the graduating full timers have a good range of grades. The grades range from the first FIRST CLASS award on the degree through Upper and Lower Second Class awards. Part-timers grades are also healthy looking but you'll get your praise next year when you complete the degree.

There are two people referred on a module each, one on Pre-production and one on Production. I obviously cannot say who the two are but the two people will be notified next week. You will have to complete the referral work within two weeks to a passable standard, and this referral work will be presented to a Referral CAB in July. If the work is passable you will graduate/progress in July.

To end this post on a high note the board commended the entire group for your dissertations. Everyone has passed this module with a good range of grades. Kate has really enjoyed working with you all on your theses, and you should all feel very proud that Kate, who has a PhD, praises you so much. I will return your bound copies with feedback attached when I send all the grades. You have all done yourself academically proud.

After you receive your feedback, please read it carefully (don't just look at your grade) as the academic team have spent time giving constructive feedback. If you then wish to discuss your work, grades and feedback book an appointment to see me. I would recommend that the two people who have been referred make an appointment to ensure they understand what they need to re-submit.

Good luck to the students graduating this year, its been a pleasure seeing your development. Although you've graduated you can still keep the course informed of your career as you will be able to continue posting to this blog. To the part-timers' your time is in 12 months… I'll see you in September.

RESULTS?

Hi Dave just a quick question will we be recieveing our results tomorrow? If it is tomorrow could you email me my results to my work address as im in work all weekend.

Cheers

Ste.

Course Assessment Board - 5 June

Hi all,

I've just had confirmation that the Course Assessment Board (CAB) will be held on Friday 5th June. At this board all full-timer grades and the part-timers' first two modules will be presented for approval.

What this means for you guys is that sometime during the following week you will be given your grades - and for the successful full-timers your awards. There are four awards available FIRST, UPPER SECOND 2:1, LOWER SECOND 2:2, and THIRD.

Also any referrals will be set at this board. If you are not successful then you will only have a two week period to work on the referral before it needs to be re-submitted. The deadline is immutable and cannot be re-arranged if you are on holiday.

I'll be in touch. Good luck everyone.

FUSE - HE degree show 19th May

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know that all next week will be the HE Arts Degree Show in the Forum in Brook Street.

Myself, Steve and Dave did try and garner interest from you all with little effect. So Dave Roberts will be unveiling his digital artwork at the event and everyone will be represented on a DVD showreel. I'll take work from your submitted work.

I'd urge everyone to come (there's free drink). The degree show is really the culmination of your year, and the last opportunity for you to see each other.

Show is on between 6:30 to 8:30.

Nobody said it was going to be Easy

But they didn't say it was going to be this Hard.

Congratulations everyone, for some of us the fat lady is singing and its all over for others another year to go, but we all deserve a weekend of relaxation. I hope you are all planing to exhibit, you really should its a great night. If I can help anyone with printing and mounting just let me know.

For those I don,t see at the exhibition good luck for the future and stay in touch via the blog.

DaveR

signing out

End of year for full-timers

Hi full-timers,

With your submission tomorrow will come the end of your studies at St Helens College. There's just the assessment between you and graduation now. Results should be with you around the end of May.

Before everyone vanishes there are some module feedback forms that need completing. Please pick them up from my desk tomorrow and complete before you leave.

Cheers and good luck with your future.

DW

FINISHED VEHICLE CONCEPT

Here are my final Vehicle Concepts at bloody last i say im glad to have everything sorted now just got to get it all together now :)

Sharing a frustration

A frustrating aspect of writing is spending time developing a sentence or paragraph till it reads and sounds really well, then to find it doesn't fit into the body of work and has to be dumped.

DaveR

Message for Tony. Need your help mate?

Alright Tony im just wondering if you could help me out in anyway. Since we are both going to be implementing our characters into the unreal engine have you got any info on the restrictions that you have to follow when putting our models into the unreal editor. Im absolutely clueless about this so any info you can provide me would be great. Its all stuff to do with poly counts texture sizes etc.

Cheers.

Ste.

Better Final Reners of the Bobber Pototype Motorbike!!!

Yet more images!!!

Playing about can give you some cool results!!!

A 3D model to help with skecthes etc.

To help me get a better idea how my model will look like i have quickly built this model in 3DS Max this will also help me with my sketches. It is just very rough i know :)

Enough with the promo images already!!!

Here a few images I bunged together for the promo images of my project - enjoy:)

VEHICLE CONCEPT

Here is the first vehicle concept nearly finished it need something added to it to finish it off but i dont know yet.

Bare Bones

At the moment I am drawing more position of my character, so I'm just showing some work in progress. A point of interest is the comments on my artwork post, it would be interesting to get more views.

Character artwork

Nice one Ste for your feed back, I may have been misleading with posting the art work when it is not completely finished I still have amour to add to the characters body, so I was showing some WIP.

Message for Dave Wood: IMPORTANT

Hi dave ive sent you a email to your bazaar.me.uk account could you look at it for me plaese?

Pictures for Tony

Here you go Tony i think this is more the type of thing that would suit your character just dont think your character looks very steampunkish at the moment and it would add to it. Just a suggestion mate.

Character artwork and blogger link

Hello everyone, Just sending a link to my blogger page for people who has not seen any of my work.

Please feel free to add constuctive comments.

Cheers

Part-time Pre-production Presentations

Wednesday 6th May

Note to full-timers

Just to remind you that the tone of your presentation is to convince not to explain us. The time to explain what you have done in the pre-production stage was during the group crits. Now is the time to pitch your production idea to the audience, show us what you will do and be positive and confident in your idea. Above all enjoy it!

20 minute presentation + questions.

Schedule

9:00 - 10:00 Set-up in C431
10:00 - Scott Tasker
10:30 - Tony Weekes
11:00 - Kevin McKenzie
11:30 - Dave Jones
12:00 - Steve Chabeaux

Please ensure you're all in the room by 9:50 including the invited audience. The core audience is restricted to assessors and BA students only.Full-timers are invited to attend. It would be good, if you can attend, to see you all. Some industry people may be in the audience. It may be worthwhile.

FINAL PIECE ON THE CHARACTER CONCEPT HONEST I MEAN IT! ;)

Well after i my last post i said i was finished i was actually in the process of finishing off a close up of the face to help me build him in MAx. So i really do mean this is the last character piece now :) Just also added the reference material to the piece purely for the research folder.

FINISHED CHARACTER AND WEAPON

Hello there peeps well you will be glad to know that my character is finished im so happy its complete only thing left to do now is the vehicle and then thats it all concept work done :)

I posted my Weapon design on the Unreal Community and ive had some really great comments and advice it got mentioned to only have one coloured light throughout so ive gone back and changed it to only one colour scheme i think it works alot better. I have to agree it does look better now :) Does anyone agree?

Badge Change

Ive decided to change the logo for the 2057 bike, do you prefer it to the old Lombo rip off one lol?

Final perspective views for the Assault Rifle

Well here is my final angles for the assault rifle so my weapon is now finished just the vehicle and the rear perspective of the character and im finished then its pitch bible time :)

Hi Everyone...

I just thought I'd post up a few concept sketches of how my Environment will be set together.



This is the area where the fight will start. Beach Landing - Zone 1




This section leads up to the Forest Clearing, from Zone 1 into Zone 2.





This section is the Forest - Zone 2 and this will then lead to Zone 3 the Viking Village - Ragnorak.




Here is Ragnorak Viking Village Zone 3.
These are all just rough layouts but it helps to organize the "walk-through".

Here's my blog spot http://ragnorak-neo-kenzi.blogspot.com/ more concept ideas are on there.
still a work in progress... ;o)

A link on how to import one PDF file to another

Ive just put this in DAve comments but dont think its going to work so ill stick it here instead.

http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/ATC/Collaboratory/HowTo/Acrobat/add.html

Pitch Bible Help!!!

Alright dudes,

I dont know if anyone is currently working on their pitch bibles, but Im about stuck and wondered if anyone can help.

Basically, I have set out my first draft of the pitch bible as follows;

Overview
The concept/idea
The Format
Technique
Research (including bobber prototype)
Charlie Collier: 1907
Bob McIntyre: 1957
John McGuinness: 2007
Luca Jones: 2057
Deadlines
Assets

Im not too sure is thats a good layout, any feedback would be great, thanks.

Also, can I just save images off in photoshop (JPegs) then apply them to a PDF???

Assault Rifle

Well i had some time off this afternoon after handing in my Dissertation ive done this tonight still think it needs working on but going to do the perspective views tomorrow and get the bulk of the work done first. So more to follow once completed....See Above Post.

I cant forget the traditional drawings now can I?

Seeing how my dissertation was written mainly about the lack of traditional skills being used within the computer games industry, I thought I would illustrate this image of my concept motorbike and not use any digital tools to enhance it :)

BA (Hons) Entertainment Media Design UCAS Applications

Those students interested in progressing onto the 3rd year top up BA need to firstly complete a UCAS application. Do arrange an informal chat with me but you need to be registered with UCAS.


UCAS DEADLINE = 6th May
www.ucas.ac.uk

The process is:

UCAS application -
Route B: Course Code - E212
Institution code name: STHEL
Institution code: S51
Start date: 01 September 2009

Complete FD

Interview (informal) for BA

Start September 2009

Dissertatio hand in

When you submit your dissertation today ensure you get a receipt. DON'T LEAVE. iT ON ANYONE'S DESK!

You can hand it into Jon the admin officer in J312 or the 3rd floor admin office in the maian building. Staff will be in and out so ensure you allow for that.

Work submited without a receipt is at your own risk as we cannot trace it of problems occur.

Good luck

Mocap

Thought I'd give you all a giggle and you can see just how bad my atempt at motion capture acting really is for my pre-production work ^^

(dont do this at home folks! it does hurt when you do it wrong too :p )

Dissertation hand in Time

Kate or Dave

Will it be ok to hand in the Dissertaton on Monday at 4.15 (Room J 312).

DaveR

Quick question for Dave Wood

Hi Dave im just filling in the list of illustrations section of the dissertation and im wondering can you show me how to lay it out for properly. Here are the images URL's ive taken off the internet to explain to the reader better the whole production process:

http://opensg.vrsource.org/trac/attachment/wiki/Tutorial/OpenSG1/NodeCores/lod.png
http://gscept.com/projects/08/ip6/public/blog/imgs/highPoly01.jpg
http://devron.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/gears-of-war-20060714024932572.jpg
http://www.darknews.com/textures/weeds-leaves-dead.jpg
http://www.antonpersson.com/gallery/tarascus/normal.jpg
http://www.orvillevillanueva.com/Dragonprojects/T1.jpg
http://www.immortalknightz.com/tutorials/UT3CustomChars/ut3chartut07.jpg
http://www.jesseobrien.com/blasty/blasty_ambient_occlusion_map.jpg
http://images.gamedev.net/features/reviews/3dsmax7/FuturemanSkinWithBiped.jpg

On the Leeds university reference website it says to lay it out like this but i dont really understand it?

ORIGINATOR. Year. Title of image [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from World Wide Web: URL.
NEWRY INSTITUTE. 2002. Current student [online]. [Accessed 4th December 2002]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.nkifhe.ac.uk/>.

I understand most of it but dont understand the ORIGNATOR & Year. Could you clear this up for me please Dave?

While im here the first 2 images i got of neil thompson when we was on the FD course how do i reference them?

Cheers,

Ste.

Message for Kate O'Leary

Myself and Ste will be coming in on Monday to hand in our dissertations to you, will you be in the staff room at 11 AM?

Thanks

Monday Tutorials

Hi Tony and Kev,

I'll be free on Monday afternoon for tutorials. Book a time that's convenient.

Tony, I've been mad busy this week but will discuss your pitch bible plan with you on Monday. Remember to use my work email for emailing drafts.

Cheers

Start of a New Concept

In between finishing off my dissertation ive started on i rear perspective of the character just so when i come to build the character in 3DS Max i have a better picture on how the character should look. Will udate as i go as usual :)