Student Forum Agenda

• Present
• Apologies for Absence
• Minutes of Previous Panel
• Matters Arising
• Student Items:-

* Enrolment/Induction (Foundation)
* Tutorials
* Workload/Timetables
* Transition Issues (Intermediate/Honours, if applicable)
* Resources
* Other

• Staff Items
• Any Other Business
• Date and Time of Next Meeting

Apology + 1 rep down, 1 to go

Just a quick post to apologise to Tony. I said I'd get back to you last Thursday RE your idea. Unfortunately on Wednesday I succumbed after a really intense day to a really bad cold and was off work for the rest of the week. While off I was still going to read your document and feed back to you but unfortunately I couldn't access my work email to download it. Could you post it onto the blog today and I'll feedback as soon as you do. I think the problem is that my password has expired but the wonder of modern technology is that it doesn't tell me or let me update it unless I'm in work on a PC. 21st century, nowhere near.

FOOTNOTE: Cheers Ste, I think due to the apathy that we can take that as your nomination. Hello full-timers, no volunteers? It's your degree too! I don't want to start sounding like a broken record...

Ste, if you start soliciting some feedback from the part-timers for Wednesday. You know the score. Cheers

Help would be appreciated

Visual Effect

Hi, I would appreciate any help offered, in achieving this visual effect.

Is it possible to do this in movie maker/any other software?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvUepMa31o

The notes would be imported into movie maker as individual images and at a given point light up. As you can see in the demo at any one time there can be 70 images/notes on the screen.

The images/notes will not be linked to sound but might be at a later date in the form of a split screen.

I know 'music animation machine' gives out free software to create this effect but this does not help me as I need to be able to manipulate the visual aspect of the notes as they travel across the screen.

If movie maker is a no go any suggestions of what software I could use.

Student Rep?

Hello peeps just wondering if anyone else has any suggestions on the Student Rep i think we need to keep the ball rolling on this one as i think Dave needs some kind of answer by monday. So as ive said before i dont mind representing the part - time students, if that is ok with all the part - time students. I spoke to Dave Jones today and he has no objection on that front, what about everyone alse who is part time?

Anyone going to nominate themselves for the full - timers then?

The cognitive style of PowerPoint.

As this module is about a presentation and their is a good chance this will be conducted via PowerPoint, 'The cognitive style of PowerPoint.' is an informative read. The author is Edward R Tufte. Google it, you will find plenty of threads, for those who want to read the booklet (20 pages) contact me. I would post but for copyright, though I could take a picture (pun) see my previous post 'An alternate view of Copyright'.

Group Crit next Wednesday morning

Hi all,

Good to see some movement on the rep front. This is a great moment in time that demonstrates the power of democracy and that extends to you guys. Let's see some consensus democracy at work in electing your reps (nice one Ste and Dave).

Anyway, back to the next group crit.

Room C431 Wednesday 12th November 9:30

10 minutes each person + questions

Full-timers you will present your rationale as to what and why you are doing your project (see below)

Part-timers you will present your idea so far from where your idea was 3 weeks ago based upon the feedback you received

----------------------------------

The Rationale - what, why, how, when, who

Your rationale is essentially the brief you are setting yourself with you justifying WHY and HOW you will do the project as well as WHAT you will do, WHEN you will do it, and WHO needs to be involved.

The rationale needs to discuss issues of audience, intellectual property rights and market. Look to your module handbook for this module, to the evidence requirements of what you need to submit for assessment and the learning outcomes that need to be met. The rationale should be between 250-500 words only, and should set in a metaphorical stone, what you've been planning since September.

From this rationale you will in December set your work schedule, which will show how you will manage your time up until May.

Use the blog to post drafts of your rationale and to see how each other interprets this structure. Overall the rationale is in your voice, explaining your project and justifying it based upon audience and market.

Rep - you know you want to

C'mon, don't be shy let's have a volunteer.

Wednesday

Unless you are coming in for a tutorial this Wednesday you are working up your project wherever you wish to work.

For the next group crit Part-time students need to develop their idea further; full-time students need to have their rationale written (the brief). More of that later.

Group Rep and 1st Student Forum

Hi everyone,

Three important things to share:

Numero Uno - Group Rep(s) Needed NOW!

Do you remember my call on week 1 that you guys need to appoint a group rep to represent your year - you guessed it I need at least one plucky volunteer (2 would be great). Ideally 1 rep for full-timers and 1 rep for part-timers. You get your own uniform (I lie), you get access to the student rep VIP secret lounge (another lie) and most importantly you get to have a say on how the degree is run, contribute to acquiring resources and get the respect of your group (truth).

Use the blog to propose/nominate yourselves someone else. I'll need at least 1 rep for next Wednesday's Student Forum (see next point).

Numero Dos - Group Rep(s) need to attend Student Forum

Next Wednesday there will be a student forum held at 1:30 in C431. Held in conjunction with FdA Computer Game Design students it is your opportunity to discuss your needs, gripes, positives and influence the development of the degree. The forum is student-focused and led. Staff team discusses at a future meeting the points raised. This forum happens twice an academic year and is crucial to the degree. Student reps lead the forum but any student can attend. In fact we recommend that you all attend.

Numero Tres - Room change

From now on when we meet for crits or tutorials it will be now in C431. J313 has finally been benched and networked as a teaching room Yay! The next group crit is soon and I'll post that separately. If you think you need a 1-to-1 tutorial sooner i'm free this Thursday or later this Wednesday afternoon. Email me to arrange an appointment time.

That's all for now. Spread the word!

more links

Turbosquid's site was mentioned at the last group crit, ive been checking it for free models to use and its coughed alot of interesting models so far (how many I will be able to use is still undecided)

also on the forum theres job listing if anyone is interested (both paid and free)

http://www.turbosquid.com/

alot of the better work costs a fair whack of money however

there's also a great looking free aliens character

Traceur Tag

The biennialFreerunner Blog biennialfreerunner.blogspot.com/ has now been published. It documents a 6 month multi-disciplinary CG video project collaboration between De La Salle School and St Helens College.

You can check out the work involved on the project website www.traceurtag.com.

An alternate view of Copyright

Question. Sherrie Levine took a photograph of Edward Weston's photograph of his son, did Levine breach copyright? Follow this link to an article by Abigail Solomon-Godeau but beware as reading it plays with your mind.

http://audfilm.com/BeFakeRemake/Abigail%20Solomon-Godeau%20-%20Winning%20the%20Game%20When%20the%20Rules%20Have%20Been%20Changed.pdf

Cheers for the links

http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/

There the art site that can help loosen up your drawing. Anyone else wanting to improve their drawing this site is good - since one of the best ways to improve is life drawing and if your like me you cant aford it.

To loosen up your drawing, first off the best way to do it at first is traditional style but you can use a wacon tablet. Select '30 second drawing' to start it off. To start with only try and get the stick figure down: the spine, sholders, hips arms, leg and head - also try and include the rip cage after you start getting used to what needs to be done. Once you start getting good at this you can start trying to add more shape to the body but dont get tided up with detail, you want to focus on getting the shape down with the propotion right fast.

hope that makes sence, and if helpful

Good stuff

Thanks Karen and Dave for the links.

For figure animation make sure you all buy this book. It's fried gold.


The Animator's Survival Kit:
A Working Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Computer, Stop-motion, Games and Classical Animators

by Richard Williams

----------------------

Harvard referencing:

Williams, R (2001) The Animator's Survival Kit: A Working Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Computer, Stop-motion, Games and Classical Animators, Faber and Faber

Unreal links

Hi! Here are some good links for tutorials in Unreal for those interested.

www.3dbuzz.com
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/WebHome.html
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/

Hope theyre helpful

LINKS!

Hey Guys and Girls.

Here are a couple of links that I spoke about today.

Here is the Bizarre Creations link to their jobs... (If you select a job it then gives you a brief to that position)

www.bizarrecreations.com/jobs/


Here is the link to that animation I was talking about...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVIaQXXqoZQ

This is a cool website showing 3D artist work. It's from professionals so please don't get to disheartend, its inspiration...

www.3dtotal.com/

The last thing link is for the environmental artists, the architect is a guy called Norman Foster who is quite famous....

www.fosterandpartners.com/Practice/Default.aspx

anyways, hope some of these links have helped you all!

Wednesday's Group Crit

Hi all,

Just to announce that Wednesday's group crit will begin at the regular time of 9:30 now.

Bring yourselves, your ideas, development work (basically WHAT you've been doing for the last 4 weeks) to discuss. I'll be facilitating the crit but you yourselves will run it. 20 mins each. I will be strict.

I'm looking forward to an exciting idea-fest we can then develop.

PS: Those who didn't get a chance to speak last Wednesday go first this Wednesday.

:-)

SOME VERY VERY ROUGH IDEAS

Just thought that i would post up a few ideas that have been going through my head at the weekend. As the title suggests these are very basic and rough just wanted to get a mood and feel for the task ahead.

Feel free to comment if you want?

Pre-production Presentation Deadline

Presentation and Evidence - Wednesday 17th December
9-30 onwards [room TBC]

• 20 minute presentation of final concept to an audience of peers and assessors
  

Supporting Evidence (to submit in digital form)

• A rationale
  
• A project management schedule
  
• A design document or equivalent evidence demonstrating development of concept, market, audience and distribution method
  
• A research folder supporting the development of concept
  

Grade Weighting
20% Research and project management evidence
50% Design Document (or equivalent)
30% Presentation

BREAKDOWN OF WORK TO BE COMPLETED THIS YEAR

Haiving set out my brief which may change slightly i sent it to my mentor in Sony John Dwyer and he said that i need to breakdown and set my self a schedule to follow so that i dont start lagging behind with my workload. So see below to how he told me to set it out it may help everyone else to do the same, just a suggestion. At the end of the breakdown i sent it to John and he seemed very pleased with it so ive added he response as well :)

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Breakdown of workload to be done?

I intend to do between 10 to 15 hours of work per week whilst I am on the pre production stage of the course this will consist of 24 weeks in total breaking this down this will give me 360 hours of time needed to be put aside to complete my objectives.

These are the following stages of my Pre-production stage of the project.

Research Material
Initial Sketches and Ideas
Finished pieces of work
Blueprints ready for modelling in 3DS Max

Weeks #

#1 Research 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#2 Research 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#3 Research 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#4 Research 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#5 Research 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#6 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#7 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#8 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#9 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#10 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#11 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#12 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#13 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#14 Initial Sketches 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#15 Finished Pieces of Work 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#16 Finished Pieces of Work 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#17 Finished Pieces of Work 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#18 Finished Pieces of Work 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#19 Finished Pieces of Work 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#20 Finished Pieces of Work 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#21 Blueprints 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#22 Blueprints 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#23 Blueprints 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.
#24 Blueprints 12 hours Dissertation 3 hours.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Excellent Steve. This is exactly what we would give to our Dev manager who would Excel it up into a doc and keep track of progress.I would suggest that you hand this onto your Tutor with your Brief and then keep tabs of it yourself on a wall chart. Its really good to do it that way as its very visible and you can chart your progress and see how well you are doing. Great work.

John DwyerSony Computer Entertainment Europe

STEVEN CHABEAUX INITIAL BRIEF

Hi guys well since we never had a lecture today i started my initial brief just wanted to make a start it isnt the finished artical still needs fine tuning but see what ive done and all comments positive or negative are welcome :)

Brief

Back Story

The year is 2098; Earth as we know it today is dying with the aid of air and land pollution the human race have colonised other planets to ensure their survival. With the depletion of the two pole ice caps, major flooding has been created causing major weather fluctuations. Earth is now kept in near complete darkness with violent weather conditions ranging from freak dusk storms to hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as constant downpours of rain.

During the colonisation of other worlds the U.W.L. (Unified World Leaders) agreed to form a corporation called the D.I.C (Duplicates Individual Consortium) to create Human Cyborgs to aid the Human Race in the colonisation of other worlds. With the huge advancement in robotics and medical science the D.I.C. created Human Cyborgs called Equivalents.

Equivalents are near on perfect replicas of their makers and it is very difficult to distinguish between the two. Equivalents have superior strength and intelligence as this was required for the heavy workload that was required throughout the colonisation of other worlds. Throughout the years Equivalents had multiplied by the millions and had even formed their own communities throughout the new formed worlds.

With the Human Race now seemingly safe from distinction, the U.W.L. agreed that all Equivalents should be decommissioned immediately. This formed wide spread panic within the Equivalent society and they decide to fight back.

Many decades later and the war between the Human Race and the Equivalents still rage on with no end insight. With both sides knowing their strength and weaknesses the struggle seems never ending but at some point one side will come out victorious…


Topic

The creation of characters for the Humans and Equivalents.

Time period

The year is 2120 there is a war going on between the human race and human cyborgs called Equivalents. With other worlds now colonised the battle has begun and survival of each race hangs in the balance. Advancement in weapon technology has not evolved much further on than in today’s society although some major advancements have arisen in recent times mainly the use of laser technology however this is at a very early stage of the process.

Race

Humans = Humans have been around for hundred of thousands of years and have survived and adapted to every given situation. With the introduction of the Equivalents the human race are facing their biggest challenge to date and their mission is to eradicate the Equivalents once and for all. It was now up to the D.I.C. to undo their previous work and bring back order to all the colonised worlds.

Equivalents = The Equivalents main function was to help the human race colonise other worlds in order for the human race to survive. With their main priority now done the human race saw no need for the Equivalents to survive, the Equivalents deemed this unacceptable and decided to fight back. Equivalents are not much different than their makers but seemingly having superior strength and intelligence.

Requirements

Pre-Production – Year 1

To collate as much research material as possible via images taken from the internet, magazines and books these will then be then used to create my initial ideas. Films = Blade Runner, Total Recall, Runner man, Star Wars Series, Aliens Series, Serenity, Minority Report and the Matrix Trilogy. (Others may follow)
Plenty of initial sketches formulating in rough sketches of ideas on how my characters are to look and stand. Also what clothes they shall where and what weapons that they shall have.
The creation of final / finished images that are to be as my final pieces of work using Photoshop and other applications.
Final blueprints to be taken into 3DS Max for creation.

Production – Year 2

To create at least 2 Human characters and 2 Equivalents ready to implement into a game engine using 3DS Max as my main tool application along with Z-Brush to create normal maps etc.

Creation Budget is to comprise of the following:

9000 tris max for everything (everything = characters, glows, effects, artifact, weapons and their effects, steeds, pets, twins, multiple characters, summoned monsters and personal equipment)

1 x 2048 Color Map

*1 x 2048 Reflection Map

*1 x 2048 Specular Map

*1 x 2048 Specular Color Map

*1 x 2048 Normal Map

*1 x 2048 Bump Map

*1 x 2048 Opacity(transparency) Map

*1 x 2048 Glow map*1 x 2048 Glossiness map

* Optional

Final images of the 3D models that I created depicted in a mock up game environment again using Photoshop to give an impression what my models shall look like in-game.

Wednesday's lecture with me is cancelled!

Hi BA's, hopefully you all have had my email telling you I'm stranded in Edinburgh due to a train strike. If not and you're reading this, guess what? Yep I'm stranded in Edinburgh due to a train strike. I'll have to travel back on wednesday so I won't be in. That doesn't mean you get a free session by no means. Get on developing your project ideas, post some visuals to the blog so I can at least remotely see what your planning. Check your email for further pointers as to what to do. Please try to pass this information on to as many of the group as possible. Please accept my apologies and I'll do my lecture next Wednesday. It was a good one too! :-(

Pre-production Tools - examples

Hi all,

As promised here are the examples I used in Wednesday's pre-production lecture:

-----------------------------------------

Pitching Schedule example

Source: Dave Wood - New Media Bazaar

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Rough Working Schedule and Task Analysis example

Source: Dave Wood - biennialFreerunner

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Narrative Path example

Source: Dave Wood - BiennialFreerunner

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Thumbnail Sketches example

Source: Stas Krakiewicz - biennialFreerunner

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Photoshop Sketch example

Source: Stas Krakiewicz - biennialFreerunner

-----------------------------------------

Quick Storyboard example

(link to pdf to be added)

Source: Dave Wood - biennialFreerunner

-----------------------------------------

3D Modellers Design Document example

(link to pdf to be added)

Source: Dave Wood - biennialFreerunner

-----------------------------------------

Animation Pitch Bible with Episode Guide example

Pitch Bible [PDF]
Full Concept Bible [PDF]

Source: Cake Entertainment

-----------------------------------------

Pitch Bible Blogs & Info

Cartoon Creation Blog

The Pitch Bible: Just The Essentials

Sexy Videogameland Blog

This is another games blog by journalist Leigh Alexander. She is news director at Gamasutra.



sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com

Guardian Games Blog by Aleks Krotosky

Yo!

Here's a link to Aleks Krotosky's Games Blog on the Guardian website. Aleks has/will have a PhD in social psychology at the University of Surrey and is an authority on social aspects of gaming. She used to be a presenter of the late 1990's games tv programme bits (anyone old enough to have watched it, or is just me then?) Check her out, her posts may help you with aspects of your dissertation.


www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog