Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Back to the drawing board!

Well having accessed my character ive come to the conclusion that my characters face is looking too much like Kratos from God of War. So ive gone back again and started to draw some new designs taking everything that ive done into consideration and this is what ive done so far more to follow..... (Sorry about the quailty of the pics but took it from my camera my scanner is still knackered.)

Degree Show Planning

As you come to the end of the course the end result is more than just a hand-in. Each year we have a HE degree show. As I type the horse-trading as to how the show will work is beginning and this gives you all an opportunity to suggest how you wish to have your work seen. As there are only a small number of graduating full-timers this year I am throwing the show open to part-timers to preview work-in-progress.

Therefore what would you show? The outcome of your Production module and selected concept work from Pre-Production.

How will it be shown? DVD showreel, print-outs… what's your thoughts. Let's hear from you over Easter. Begin discussing it via the blog and I'll see what can be done.

The degree show will be held in the Forum area of the main building near photography about the 3rd week in May (after hand-ins).

How should the year end? What's your thoughts?

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Student Forum Meeting on Tuesday

Hi all (part-timers and full-timers),

There will be the 2nd student forum on Tuesday 31st March at 9:30 in C431.

If the group reps can attend that would be great. If the year could feedback to Steve or Dave Roberts your concerns, ideas, comments etc. that would be great.

Steve and Dave can you attend? If not can you email me anything you want raising? All students are welcome to attend but use the reps to raise your concerns.

Cheers

Monday, 23 March 2009

Final Image Finishing Line in Sight


Hi folks

My final image has at last taken shape. At this scale I don't know if you can see the coloured rectangles in the upper 3/4 of the image but what I have to do is replace them with photographs, scans and news cuttings and that's the work finished.

Visually what you are seeing is shape given to a musical composition, the context of which involves the potency of musical memory, and how music can often reawaken personal memories and associations that are otherwise lost. Research for this project led me to work with a group of people who are suffering from dementia, an illness in which memory degeneration is continuous. It has been known for some time that musical memory is more resilient to disintegration and has been called a "relative island of preservation in a sea of impairments,”(Gardner 1985). A piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head, it acts as a catalyst and calls back autobiographical memories. Recent research suggests that the region of the brain where memories of our past are supported and retrieved also serves as a hub that links familiar music, memories and emotion.

DaveR

Gardner H: Frames of Mind; The theory of multiple intelligences. Chapter 6, "Musical Intelligence," 99-127. New York, Basic, 1985

VERY EARLY WEAPON CONCEPTS

I have put my character to one side for now so i can start on the weapon and vehicle concepts so here is the start of the weapon concepts more to come.... :)


SKIN CONCEPTS

In the middle of doing my dissertation ive produced this piece im just playing round with different skin tones for my character really.

Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Aby Warburg (1866-1929). The Survival of an Idea

Hi Dave (Roberts)

Further to your tutorial yesterday I've just been introduced to Aby Warburg by my PhD supervisor Chris Speed. I think his research on "The Survival of an Idea" may support your own research somehow. At the least it may be interesting. Here's the link www.educ.fc.ul.pt/hyper/resources/mbruhn/

Looking good

Nice work Karen... Looking good.

Tuesday, 17 March 2009

Level test

Hi all. I've finished building the maps for my level so if you get time I would like you to test it and let me know what you think. It can be downloaded from here: www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showthread.php?p=1445080#post1445080

























Now I just need to add sound to it to finish it off

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Background of character?

With the help of my mate Stuwart Owens and while i came up with the original concept we have come together and started to write the back story for my character where, when he was born etc. So here is what we have done so far:

William Molenar (June 12 2499) was an Colonel in the Unified Army during the Unification Wars, at the Battle of Vienna, he commanded a rescue mission that freed the deposed Alliance Leader from captivity. Molenar was also the leader of Operation Gemini, in which soldiers were to infiltrate through enemy lines, using their opponents' uniforms and customs.

Molenar was born in Durban into a middle-class South African family that had a long history of military service. In addition to his native Afrikaans, he spoke excellent French and English. In his teens, William once complained to his father of the austere lifestyle that his family was suffering from by mentioning he had never tasted real butter in his life due to the worldwide depression.. His father replied, "There is no harm in doing without things. It might even be good for you not to get used to a soft life." Thus his underprivileged upbringing helped make him the feared warrior that he became. He was a noted swordsman at the Military Academy in London were he also excelled as an engineer. He engaged in thirteen personal combats. The tenth resulted in a wound that left a dramatic scar on his cheek.
In 2520 Molenar joined the Unification Forces and soon became a member of the Werewolves an elite Special Forces unit. A charismatic figure, Molenar played a minor role in the Austrian Invasion of July 12 2525, when he saved the Austrian President Wilhelm Moloch from being shot by Unification Troops.
After the 2520 invasion of the Mars Colonies, Molenar, then working as a civil engineer, volunteered for service in the Air Force but was turned down on grounds of age. He then joined Fathers (Leader of UWL) bodyguard regiment, as an officer-cadet.
In 2522, as an UF Corporal, he impressed his superiors by designing drop ships to quickly unload ordinance from ships. He then fought in the liberation of Venus and The Capture of the Europan Power Systems, where he achieved distinction by forcing a large Alliance force to surrender; following which he was promoted to Captain.
Molenar went to war on Earth with the 1st Infantry and subsequently fought in several battles on the American Front. In October 2253 he was in charge of a "technical section" of the Unified forces during the battle for Moscow. His mission was to seize important buildings of the Alliance Forces, including the Allied headquarters at Lubyanka, and the Central Command and other high priority facilities, before they could be destroyed.
In December 2523 he was severely wounded in the back of the head by shrapnel and sent to Vienna to recover. While in Vienna, he learned that The Doctor had decided to form a new unit similar to the Commandos – The Werewolves he quickly volunteered for this and was accepted.
After Molenar had recovered from his wounds, he took command of The First Werewolf Unit. In July 2525, he was personally selected by The Doctor from among six UF Air Force and Army special agents to lead the operation to rescue Air Marshall Caine. Almost two months of cat-and-mouse followed as the Allied Forces moved Caine from place to place to frustrate any rescuers. Information on Caine's location and its topographical features were finally secured by The Planner (Molenar’s second in command) and aerial reconnaissance by Molenar himself. On September 12, Molenar took part in "Operation Legend" a daring assault on a fortified base in Northern Scotland. Caine was rescued without firing a single shot. Molenar escorted Caine to Rome and later to London. The exploit earned Molenar fame and promotion to Major.
On October 20, Molenar was in London when an attempt on The Doctor's life was made. Anti-Unity Army officers tried to seize control of the UWL's main decision centres before The Doctor recovered from his injuries. Molenar helped put down the rebellion, spending 36 hours in charge of the United Forces's central command centre before being relieved.
Then came his most daring raid
As planned by Molenar, Operation Endgame involved about two dozen Werewolf Operatives, most of them in captured Alliance Ships and dressed as Alliance soldiers, who would penetrate the last Alliance base in Antarctica to cause disorder and confusion. While this happened Molenar and the Planner infiltrated the High Command, assassinating the entire leadership – ending in a stroke the Unification Wars.

Monday, 9 March 2009

Error! Group Crit is this Wednesday 11th

Thanks Ste for spotting that error with my previous post.

The group crit is the 11th not the 18th, that is this Wednesday!

In my earlier post of Friday, 13 February 2009 "Deadline Dates - READ CAREFULLY and adjust your schedules" the date was correct.

To reiterate that the group crit is this Wednesday at 9:30am in C431.

See all part-timers then.

Sunday, 8 March 2009

Next group crit?

Hi Dave when is our next group crit? Im alittle confused because your post said the 18th of March but you said a comment on scotts post saying "Let's see a load more of these analytic tests at the group crit next week."
So have we got a group crit this week or the week after then not sure?
If we havent got a group crit this week can i book in to see you to discuss my dissertation and work in progress? Im working on my dissertation at the moment and im going to email you and Kate before i go to bed tonight to show you exactly where im at with it. Im getting good feedback off the questionnaire i knocked up by the way loads of info :)
Let us know about wednesday then Dave?

Friday, 6 March 2009

My dissertation

Hi Dave just thought that i would update you where im at with my dissertation:

Ive currently made a start on the Introduction and at the same time i have been in touch with John. Im putting together a questionaire that reads like this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Name?

Your Job title?

Give a brief description of your day to day activities during pre-production/prototype phase?

Give a brief description of your day to day activities during production?

Give a brief description of your day to day activities during polish/post-production?

Is there a set of self-imposed rules that you follow religiously, if so what are they?

Do you think that another member of your team work to the same work flow as yourself? Are there any differences?

'What phase of production gives you the most satisfaction, and what is the most stressful/intense?'

What advice and comments would you give to aspiring young developers? When trying to follow a similar work ethic as yourself?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He is going to pass it round some of the guys in Development for me and so i should get some good advice and tips for my dissertation.

Im going to work over my dissertation over the weekend and then email yourself and Kate what ive done so far to see what you think.

What do you think Dave?

Thursday, 5 March 2009

Tips if wanting to post images on Epic Games Forums

Yesterday i joined the Epic Games forums community and i had lots of trouble putting up my images on the threads. It took me ages to get it right but im now sharing my work with the Epic Games community.

The problems i was having was, you have to link your work with a URL address and when i was putting in the college blog URL a little white box would appear with a red cross through it and wouldnt display the image. So i asked for help and this is what someone wrote back "As far as the images giving you heck it looks like your using a blog site for image hosting, many of those sites do not allow direct linking. Try putting your image on a site like Image Shack or Photobucket, then link to it form there."

So what i had to do was, i uploaded my images to http://imageshack.us/ and then when i went back into the Epic Games forum the images appeared.

I just thought i would share it with everyone so you dont have the same problems that i had.

The URL for the Epic Games Community is http://forums.epicgames.com/

Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Middleware

Hi Kev,

Kate has an article on middleware in Developer Magazine. Their website www.developermag.com has the following links from a search using middleware as a keyword. Check them out http://www.developmag.com/search/middleware/news/1. There are 5 pages of them.

Narrowing my Character Down

With all my ideas coming along ive decided to rough out a few quick sketches to see how my character will look like these sketches didnt take long still quite rough, its all slowly coming together.


Haiving looked at my previous drawing i think he needed to be abit more muscular so ive redefined my drawing slightly using photoshop. I have made the shoulders, forearms and legs slightly wider.

<<<<<----->>>>>
<<<<<----->>>>>

<<<<<----->>>>>

Tuesday, 3 March 2009

update

Why is it when the wheels are in motion lots of things fall apart on you?


I could moan at all the little problems ive had this past 2 weeks but I won't, 2 videos taken so far off people walking about (in St Helens) and a (very) short clip of people playing football. Have started to work on the analysis (see pic below) of them as these will form the basic back-ups in case my main plan off filming actors goes tits up.


My rationale hasnt been touched much so I will keep working on it when I get chance
ps sorry about the image being crap, im not used to CorelRave


Dissertation

Hi all (FT & PT),

Kate needs to see a draft of your dissertation. Email her whatever you've currently got.

Remember if you're experiencing problems don't put your head in the sand, arrange yourself a tutorial sooner than later. Otherwise you'll just be compounding your problems and it won't get easier over these last 2 months.

Make it easier on yourself and get the support of your tutors.

Hope to hear from you soon :-)

Next Group Crit - Part-Time Students

Hi part-timers,

On Wednesday 18th the penultimate group crit will be held for Pre-production with myself and Dean Betton. The same format as before 10 minute plus questions.

The focus of this group crit will be on pre-production progress. Show what work you've done since the last time you discussed your work. The emphasis is on gauging direction and progress. You can show concepts, schedules, new research, prototypes, software tutorials, sketches etc. whatever you have. This is an important milestone as the next group crit in April will be the last, and that will focus on collating your work into the pitch bible/design document.

We'll begin at 9:30 in C431.