*UPDATED* More new sketches

Well after coming home from work today and having shown John via email my drawings he said im definately getting there now but added this at the end of the email:
"On the 50 thumbs. A thumb is size 2cm maybe 5cm. Yes on doing on e in black pen. Follow the book !
The book that John has lent me explains this reason for doing your thumbnail sketches so small it says:
"The small size of the drawings forces you to think in terms of major shapes and not detail. With this method, there is little pressure to produce good drawings, so you can focus on generating lots of ideas"
So this is what i done when i got in its on 1 sheet of A4 paper, im really starting to understand this process now and it helping with my ideas.

I saw John briefly on friday and i showed him my latest thumbnails and he said much improved but i could loosen up even more. So ive decided to use a Bic pen to see if that helps and i think it has feel like im definately on the right track now after all this time :)

Having looked at my thumbnails i know i needed to loosen up even more so still using a blue and black biro ive reworked on some of my previous drawings and here is the result.

I sent these new drawings to John and he said:"Good on the loosening....Are these thumbs 3 cm high ? Thats what you should be doing dont forget"

So im going to fit about 60 pics on a A4 piece of paper from now on will post more up when i have one completed.

Ive now produced 60 thumbnails on a A4 sheet of paper quite pleased with the results. What do you think Dave?

Rational work: am I on the right path?

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to get an idea on how to complete this rational so that I can present it to my audience.

Thanks


Character Project Rational

What is the project?
My project is to create a highly detailed game character that can be used in a next generation game; the game engine I have chosen to use for my character is the Unreal engine.
The theme of my character will be a mixture of post World War One and steam powered technology (Steam punk style). This theme will fit in with the back story of my character that is an agent part for a secret organisation that is the fount line defence against the paranormal and bazaar super natural enemies of Great Britain.
The reason I have chosen this theme is to step out of the comfort zone of creating the usual characters that are seen in most games and try to make something different.
132 words

Why this project?
As a consumer I have enjoyed playing Bio Shock, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War which all use the Unreal engine. What attractive me into buying these games, was the great marketing, outstanding graphics and most importantly good game play.
Another attraction that I like about the games mentioned, is that new content can be added by downloading content from the developers or you can learn to custom build your own content.
72 words

How will this be done?
The first step to creating a character is to explore my ideas, generate as many ideas possible onto paper and by brain storming lots of ideas I will send my drawings to my audience for feedback.
For the production of the character I will be producing concept designs, exploded diagrams, blueprints and modelling the character mesh.
By following the principles of modelling characters for Unreal engine, the mesh, textures, normal maps and specular map of my character I will be imported into the Unreal engine.
My custom character will be fully playable within Unreal Tournament multiplayer modes I will give users from the mod community access to my finished character and they can download my character for free.
123 words



When will this be done?
For this character project, I have created a Gantt chart which will mark out the deadlines dates of when each module is to be complicated. So far the date for the pre-production pitch bible and this rational document will be done by the end of March.
46 words

Who is involved in this project?
I will be producing the work that is required for the pre–production, production and post-production stages of the project.
Following the progress of my project will be my audience (Epic forum), mentor and tutors. The reason for this is to gain extra knowledge of what my audience would like to see, take into consideration any opinions made and not to become self indulgent due to the fact that I am creating work for an audience.
76 words

What Intellectual Property Rights are used?
I have found out information from senior users of the Epic forums, about the rules behind IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) when creating content for Unreal Tournament 3.
Within the IPR documents there was lots of information about many subjects relating to the content of Unreal Tournament.
My understanding of the IPR document is that it protects the content made by the studios artists from anyone outside of Epic who may claim the artwork as their own. Epic has given users access to the unreal engine so they may freely import custom content into the game engine and anything users create outside of the engine is the creator’s property.
However if users are using any of the content provided by Epic, users do not have the right to claim this content as their work.
133 words

Who is my audience?
Unreal Tournament 3 has been released on three formats (PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox), from what I have leant of Unreal on the PC and Playstation 3 formats is that users can import custom content directly into Unreal.
So my audience is the Epic mod community for Unreal tournament 3 and I will create content that can import onto both formats for a broader audience.
http://forums.epicgames.com
65 words

Total 647 words not including title or word count

1920s reference - Hercule Poirot

http://uk.youtube.com/results?orig_query=poirot&search_query=hercule+poirot&orig_query_src=3

Answering the call for more Visual Work

This is what ive produced this afternoon when i got homeafter our group crit today. What does everyone think? As requested Dave here is the other picture that i showed at the group crit today. Having abit of trouble with this blog Dave dont know why put i cant rearrange the images when im posting. Any idea why Dave?

Call for a more visual blog

Yep its that time again.

Let's get some samples of work-in-progress up on the blog. Don't be shy - share.

If you don't I will.

Get posting!

Character Design Links

A big timely thank you to Graham Williams from graphics for these links about character design:


http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/08/character-design-primer.html


http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/20_character_design_tips


http://www.characterdesigns.com/


http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/

Reminder to Part-timers - Wed Group Crit

A quick, hopefully not too late, reminder to Part-timers that their 1st group crit is tomorrow (Wed). The focus is on developing your rationale and catching everyone up with progress. We will also discuss the last stages of your first year too.

Room C431 - 9.30am. Be on time. We may not have a projector so we may get cosy round a table and monitor instead.

Be good to see you all.

Message from Kate about the dissertation

Hello good people,

Monday, 2nd March. Could you please e-mail me at least 3,000 words of your dissertation by this date. This can be an introduction and chapter, or two chapters, depending on how you are approaching your research. Please include references and bibliography in this.

It is very important that you complete this as I need to see your progression and check if you are on the right lines.

REMEMBER: dissertation is 6,000 words and DEADLINE is Monday 27th April. We cannot go over this deadline as late submissions cannot be ratified at the summer Course Assessment Board. This means you will have to wait at least until September, which in turn will delay your graduation for a year!


Good luck!
Keep in touch,
Kate

Reminder to FULL-timers

Just to remind the full-timers that their 1st session begins tomorrow (Friday), 9:30am in J313.

Dave will introduce the module, the specialist-tutor/student relationship, assessment and the deadline at 9:30am
Stas will then take the module over as module leader for the remainder of the session.
Dean will drop in to support.

Make sure you're all there on time and ready to get going.

Academic Writing - planning

Hi all,

I will post the final stages of my recent piece of academic writing as soon as I can scan in my working drafts.

In the meantime, in preparation for the Production module, I thought my planning for my next piece of academic work would help the full-timers. As part of production you full-timers will also have to document what you are doing. This process will follow on from what you did as part of WBL last year but to a higher analytical degree. This will be explained next week.

To support this, I thought it may help you to see how I am planning to write a different academic research paper on the Traceur Tag summer project. This paper will be 4000 words in total. In the following screenshot you will see how I propose to set it out, the sections I propose to include and the word count for each section. This will help me edit my text down to keep it concise so that each topic will communicate clearly without waffle.



This planning is still fluid and will change as I start to write, but it will inform me when I am straying from what I need to communicate. The word counts are indicators only. If required, I can go over the allotted word count for that section if I sacrifice words from another section, and vice versa. This allows me to hit the 4000 words set for the entire paper, but still be flexible within it.

The software I have used is Scrivener, a Mac-based writing software but you can use actual cards to plan any writing you do. Planning can and does save you so much time later and helps to stop writer's block.

Start date back

Happy New Year all!

January is here and a new start beckons.


Officially you all begin on Wednesday 21st January, but your actual sessions to attend will be different (see below). This term the full-timers and part-timers split onto their own study streams. They will now be dealt with separately for the practical modules. Kate's dissertation module will be as normal. If you haven't already done so use the time up to the formal sessions to work on your dissertation. Request a tutorial from Kate.

I will be posting a final insight into how I write academically, showing techniques I use to plan, draft, refine and reference over the weekend.

Full-timers - first session = Friday 23rd 9:30 J313

Production module.
Module Leader/Specialist Tutor: Stas Krakiewicz
Specialist Tutor: Dean Betton
Specialist Tutor: Stuart Carter

During the day you will formulate a working brief from your Pre-production rationale. With Stas you will have an individual tutorial to discuss your design document with him in order to now implement the work you've planned. By the end of the day you will agree a plan that will last 11 weeks resulting in the creative outcome you proposed.

Once this is done you will each be assigned a primary specialist tutor to consult for the duration of the module: Karen and Miles with Stas, Jenny and Kurzon with Dean, and Dave with Stuart. You are free to consult the other specialist tutors for secondary opinions, but their priority will be on their assigned students. Consultations through regular tutorials will be student-led and will be for guidance and monitoring only. Specialist-tutors are not there to teach.


Part-timers - group crit = Wednesday 28th 9:30 C431

Pre-production Module
Module Leader/Specialist Tutor: Dave Wood
Specialist Tutor: Dean Betton

You will begin a week later than the full-timers. On this Wednesday we will have a group crit on your rationale. Look to earlier posts on the blog to what was required of the full-timers. 10 minutes each, you know the drill.