Home Stretch.

So here we are, at the start of the last week before the final hand in. Happily, I haven't got any work to catch up on, so I've been able to really get stuck in to our last project. Our task was to design a vehicle, character or environment based around 1920's Chicago. I chose to do a vehicle.

While the theme doesn't really appeal to me, I was glad of the chance to apply some of what I'd learned during the independent perspective studies I've been doing this past month.

My process as I work towards a final drawing.

I should have started with the wheel base!

It's nice to end on a high though and this project was just that. Something I did that worked particularly well was writing myself a design brief in the early stages of the project. 

With a lot of design orientated projects this term, I have struggled to make aesthetic decisions without a brief to base those decisions off. Having a brief to hand made this much easier and I feel it led to a much more coherent and unified final design.

1920's Chicago Vehicle.

Another project we've got on the go is the masters project, so I've been analysing the works of old masters and creating sketches of their work. I'm currently halfway through a final piece and I have to say I'm rather enjoying it.

Something I've come to realize lately is it's OK to draw and paint for the fun of it. Sounds obvious and silly, I know, but this year I've been hesitant to create art without having a specific learning outcome in mind. Or putting off drawing and painting because I feel like I'm too drained to get anything out of it.

But this masters project has helped me relax a bit. It's an enjoyable combination of looking at some amazing art and painting for the joy of it. I'll definitely be doing some more over the summer.

So here we go, last week. See you at the finish line.

Fight Club - Cinematography Analysis.

In my previous post on fight club, I wrote about what makes it such a masterpiece and why I think it's awesome. But in my enthusiasm, I neglected any actual analysis or comment on art direction.

So I thought I'd break down a screen shot from an early point in the film. Tyler and The Narrator have just had their first fight and the scene is central to the plot of the film, so again...potential spoilers ahead.

First off, let's look at the costumes and the colours. The narrator is a blank canvas. He's plainly dressed and beaten down, juxtaposed with Tyler. Tyler's clothing is flamboyant and full of personality. His red jacket symbolizes anger and danger.

Look at the composition. Notice how Tyler's ear, nose and gaze direction line up with The Narrators left arm along the sinister diagonal. Their eyes line up on the upper third and the bottle is framed centrally in the lower half.

I need to read up more on dynamic symmetry to gain a deeper understanding of how this works, but the design of the image is beautiful and gives us an insight into the mind of the director.

The inclusion of right angles strengthens the image.

Another interesting thing I noticed was the mirrored pose of the two characters. This is highly relevant to the plot and represents they are two sides of the same coin. 

The shot is framed as though we are sitting with them. The viewer feels included in the scene, as it revolves around Tyler who is positioned between us and The Narrator. Ultimately though, the scene is all about The Narrator who occupies a more central position in the frame.

The Narrator's importance is further reinforced through the greatest area of contrast. The eye is drawn to him first.

This single screen grab reveals so much about the film. It's a beautifully designed image that seems to tell a story all on its own. Art direction like this makes an awesome film!

Game Art Conference Day - Personal Response and Follow Up.

Yesterday was Game Art Conference Day. A full day in the Library, with the whole year group, focused on improving our blogs. We chose what seminars to attend ourselves. It worked really well!

And some worked better than others. My blog feedback advised me to be more critical, so here goes.

The first one I attended was 'Learning from your peers.' I chose to attend because I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn from the other years and gain some foresight into any hurdles I may run into in the future.

Interacting with the other years is a rare thing and it was very positive to have some face-to-face time. Unfortunately not much learning took place and it rapidly became a discussion along the lines of 'why is there so little intercommunication between the year groups?'

But perhaps this was the purpose of the session. I hope it was a productive discussion for the tutor and it will lead to more interaction with the other years.

As far as actually learning from your peers is concerned, it was argued that we have Facebook. I feel this is, at best, a poor substitute for actual interaction. 

At worst, Facebook can have a devastating impact on a students learning experience, creating a negative feedback loop that impacts focus, moral and confidence. This is mainly due to the algorithm which Facebook uses to organize its news feed which you can learn about in the video below.

The other session I attended was...something Visual Design. I can't remember the name, it was really long.

The session though, was fantastic! We analysed some game and film stills in small groups; encouraging use of descriptive language. We were then advised on how to implement that language in our blogs. The three tutors were awesome throughout!

To round it off, we all wrote a description of a scene, one of which would be illustrated over lunch by our tutor. I was so inspired; I painted my own over lunch as well.

I've got a long way to go and I don't mind at all. This was a lot of fun.

Overall, it was an epic day and a huge thank you to all the tutors that made it happen!

Breaking the Cycle.

I’m back. Christmas was a flood of meeting up with people and I did hardly any work. Fortunately I’d done so much work during term time, I felt like I’d earned a break and in many ways it did me a lot of good. I was lucky enough to go to France and spend Christmas with my granddad. French Christmas is a little different but it was great to shake things up a bit and try new things.

So that 2 week blog schedule I said I’d adhere to after Christmas. Aha yeah…I also said I’d focus on time management. But seriously, I've realized lately how much I get in my own way, tripping over my own thoughts and neuroses. I’m going to start using this blog to reflect on my insanity because if I perceive it as insane; I probably don’t understand it well enough. But I think I now truly understand the purpose of this blog.

'Build a self-evaluation loop into your life. If you don’t periodically review your actions, and how they’ve turned out, and your decision making process. There is no hope for your life to improve other than by random chance.' – CGPGrey

What follows is probably the most ridiculous excuse for not sticking to a blog schedule you've ever encountered. 

This post breaks the cycle; hence the title, of Informal > Formal posts that I'd subconsciously created for myself. I became aware of it and decided it was positive and 'structured'. It took a lot to convince myself it was destructive and completely irrational.

Another pattern I realized I gravitated to in my writing is trying very hard to break paragraphs into sets of 3. Even if it compromises content. And I will put a serious amount of energy into trying to stick to these patterns, even if I can't justify any real reason.

Breaking these patterns makes me uncomfortable to the point I allowed A Brief History of Games, Part III to clog my blog pipeline. Because I wanted to write it next. But not enough to actually write it. And it should never have been a priority in the first place. These mental conflicts are the enemy of productivity and it’s high time I stopped letting them beat me.

As a replacement for Part III; in case you were looking forward to it, here is something on a similar theme from Scroobius Pip. Much better than a boring blog post!

DJ Yoda featuring Scroobius Pip - Sega RIP.

Taking this self-reflective approach to my Art allowed me to go from this: 

Soar Point Final.

To this:

Train Station Final.

In a week. 

When we were set the project, I lost my head and hated myself for it. But I turned it around and really learned from it!

I saw 144 sketches and 12 finals in 2 weeks. On top of: Game Production, Critical Studies, Blogs, Personal Work…Life. And it broke me. The first week of work I produced was repellent because I made it all about speed. All intelligent thought went flying out the window and it showed through in my work.

But then a talk with Chris Wright clarified my understanding of the project and inspired me to draw my own conclusions and ignore my concern for being wrong. I switched my destructive goal on speed to a focus on artistic expression. Because it’s a storyboard project and that made sense to me. The last week of the project was inspired. And by that I mean it was genuinely no longer a mental struggle to sit in the cold and draw.

Canal Final.

I’m beginning to really appreciate just how much thought and intelligent design goes in to a piece of art. This week I had a genuinely mind blowing conversation with one of our lecturers, Mitch Small and he introduced me to art theory. Following this conversation my interest in art has increased tenfold. I've begun to gain an understanding of why art appeals to me. In an hour. It set my brain on fire.

I recognize that it’s possible to expose yourself to too much information too quickly but I can’t get enough of it. Learning how to process and apply it effectively is now my focus. All while not ruining my life. 

Turns out learning can be extremely addictive. So the next post will probably be the most exciting blog ever about time management. See you there.

An Update Before I Leave.

So tomorrow I leave Leicester for Christmas. I have a 4 and a half hour train journey to look forward to, Devon is a long way away. I'm one of the last to leave my halls, most of the students left last weekend. Experiencing the rapid disappearance of the ambient hum generated by over a thousand other residents has been rather strange but it's making me look forward to seeing my family all the more.

The latest Game Production task has been to model 2 different species of tree. Initially I didn't enjoy the task because I very much enjoy the modelling aspect of 3D and I felt trees didn't allow for much creativity and exploration in this area. However I was wrong and I found enjoyment in researching the many different processes people use to create foliage in games. Here is what I ended up with.

While I prefer the small tree, I'm very happy with both of them. The budget for these assets was 1000 triangles and 1 256 x 256 texture sheet. I was concerned that the texture budget was not enough to create adequate natural variation so I decided to build my canopy with 2 different triangular cruciform planes. Through a conversation with my tutor I also learned about padding and I created a script in Photoshop to generate it automatically in the future.

Large, Low Poly Tree 256 x 256 Texture sheet.

The Large tree had a lot of colour variation and the size increased the importance of the canopy looking good from underneath. I decided to have 1 triangle be a 'silhouette branch' (top, left) and the other be a 'bulk branch' (bottom, right). The silhouette cruciform was used to define the shape of the canopy in the early stages. As it would be less visible when the player is up close, I designed it with a preference to being viewed from the side. The bulk cruciform formed the greener interior of the canopy. Primarily visible up close and underneath the tree, the branch was designed with a preference to being viewed as such. Because this method of modelling trees is extremely efficient, for the first time I did not feel at all restricted by the tri budget. I was extremely pleased with my small tree, completed in three quarters of the budget and overall I feel this project went very well.

In Visual Design, I've been focusing on rendering and varied lighting which is currently one of my weaker areas. We visited Leicester pumping station and the Space Centre which was very interesting. I very much enjoy being encouraged to explore different parts of Leicester through drawing on location and going to places that I wouldn't otherwise take the time to visit.

Still Life, Objects on my desk.

Machinery at Dusk, Leicester Pumping Station.

Astronaut, Leicester Space Centre.

I am particularly happy that I have explored 3 very different scenes in terms of environment and lighting for my final pieces. I will continue to vary my finals as much as possible to develop my skills and identify areas for improvement.

Looking at the final outcomes, I feel I need to take care not to neglect fundamental elements like composition, tone and line weight so I will focus on that in future projects. This was confirmed by the feedback I received in my formal assessment which was invaluable in helping me set targets for the next term.

I haven't updated in a while, it seems I've gotten a little distracted so in the new year I will set a regular posting schedule. More goals for the next term are to better manage my time, work more efficiently and overhaul my presentation style. It's going to be a busy second term! For now though I really should start packing. I wish you all a very happy holidays and great new year. See you in 2014.

Aargchitecture.

Finally! The architecture project is finished and handed in. This one was a bit of a nightmare and it was completely my fault. I disregarded all advice to choose a small, fairly simple building and chose the building at 2 Kings Street, currently the XY club. When I chose it, I was told how many people had abandoned it and how it was a ridiculous choice but I'm a stubborn moron so I 'took it all under advisement' and did it anyway. I was on full speed ahead mode after my bin project and the rational was; more complicated building, more learning opportunities. Learning things the hard way will be a running theme in this blog.

So here it is. 1 Triangle to spare. My main mistake with this project was putting so much effort into the model and neglecting the textures. I underestimated how important textures are to create a convincing model so I will allocate much more time for that in future projects.

Even though it was time consuming and I got a bit obsessive, I'm really proud of the mesh. I used everything I learned on the bin project and learned twice as much again. While it seems obvious now that it has been pointed out to me, I was advised to build up detail as uniformly as possible. I will endeavor to adopt this process for my next model to quickly build up the essential details first and 'build up like a drawing'.

Also on the to-do list this week, my final drawing of a car. I drew an Audi A6 in the local shopping center where it was fairly warm and dry. The drawing went well considering I didn't spend as much time on my final as normal due to finalizing the building.

Audi A6 Saloon Car Final.

It was a good exercise in 'speeding up' but there are things that can be improved. Most obvious to me is the incorrect perspective. This is particularly annoying as I noticed it about halfway through but by then it was to late. I should have taken greater care when laying out perspective guides and mapped out more of the drawing in the draft stage. I've been recommended some DVD's by Scott Robertson so, as usual, it's time to study and improve!

Monkeys in the Museum.

This week, the visual design 'monkeys' descend on the New Walk Museum to draw dinosaur bones. The focus is directional rendering techniques and sketching without reliance on outlines. I enjoyed the subject this week but not as much as I enjoyed having a dry, warm environment to draw in for a change.

While I think the composition is effective, I feel like I could have spent more time rendering and establishing depth in the image. I intended to spend more time on my final piece this week but unfortunately it wasn't possible. 

I worked into my thumbnail sketches much more than usual. I found it very useful to experiment purely with values and little to no outlines. Especially in a way where I perceive mistakes not to matter. I feel I achieved the learning outcomes through my sketches but only partly in my final. My desire for linear accuracy gets in the way, even though I know if I loosen up I'll finish with a better image.

Additionally in Visual Design, we are given a research documentary to watch each week. They are unrelated to Art. So far they have been about Physics and Technology featuring various futurists and presented by Michio Kaku.

I was skeptical at first but I enjoy documentary's and it makes good dinner time viewing material. They're a little out dated but I'm happy I'm keeping up with them. They may be unrelated to Art but their inclusion in the course is testament to the fact that we should be broadening our horizons as Game Artists.

I'm now about to dive into modelling a building so expect some more 3ds Max. I hope you enjoyed my previous post on the early history of Computer Games. Up next is Part II.

Braving Bradgate.

Just a quick update this week because there is another (slightly different) post coming tomorrow. This week was the 'infamous Bradgate Park Game Art romp'. And yeah it was pretty horrible. It was worse for the Monday group but on Tuesday it was still not a lot of fun. Huddling over your sketchbook to keep it dry while you desperately try to scribble down something legible is...difficult working conditions. 

Still, it was a bonding experience I guess and I had some really tasty white chocolate flapjack from the local cafe so it wasn't all bad. The park itself is very interesting and in a way reminded me a lot of Dartmoor back home. The diversity in the trees is astonishing and the whole park is inhabited by vast numbers of deer.

Thanks to the rain, wind and some distracting wildlife; I only got about half my work done so I organised a second trip to the park on Thursday. With 2, 8 seater taxi's booked for 10am and a promising forecast; it was set to be a good day. Happily everyone turned up on time and after a short taxi ride we were greeted with a completely different scene...

Compared with Tuesday, it was a wonderfully successful and productive day. I got my thumbnails done in no time and just being out in the countryside in the sun felt like a treat. I'm also really happy with my final piece. While I could have spent more time detailing it, I felt like I reached a point where I was overworking it and I'd already sunk enough time into the drawing.

I applied what I learned last week and arrived at a drawing that effectively demonstrates my understanding of atmospheric perspective. While shading and lighting were my primary focus this week, I was careful not to neglect other fundamental lessons. To improve the drawing I could've spent more time detailing the rocks and working up the textures. Next week I will try and improve my drawing speed as usual but focus on allocating my time better.

How's it Bin?

I've just dried off. I'm relishing the feeling of dry feet. Kettles boiled so I figure it's a good time to post an update. I've just returned from the infamous Bradgate Park Game Art trip. It wasn't as horrifying as I was led to expect but more on that next week when I have some finished, accompanying drawings to upload.

Highlight of the week was finishing my Wheelie Bin. It was definitely a challenge but I'm really happy with the result. When the project was set, I had no clue how to go about it and this 3D malarkey was still pretty alien to me. 

So I spent many many hours playing around with various buttons in 3ds Max and learning things just for the sake of it. I wrote pages upon pages of notes so I retained as much as possible and then took what I'd learned and applied it to the bin.

When hand in day rolled round I felt like I really had done my best in the time that was given to us. My understanding of 3ds Max improved ten fold and for the first time I feel like I'm not fighting the program anymore. At least until the next project and I'm exposed to a whole new set of tools...

In Visual Design, we moved on from one point perspective to two point perspective. Our task was the usual body of thumbnails and a final piece, however depicting a scene of a building with two point perspective. I opted to draw the campus center students union building because those thumbnails were the most interesting.

Figuring out the perspective so it looked believable was really enjoyable. I was really happy with the base sketch. I felt the shape was well established and it sat nicely on the paper. However when it came to shading I began to regret my choice of building. Shading the front in particular was very time consuming. I felt like I was destroying a lot of the detail I'd worked hard to establish in the line work and it quickly became frustrating.

Overall I was content with the outcome but mainly because I felt like I learned a lot. After completing it, I received some extremely helpful critiques from tutors and class mates. In particular it was suggested to me that I look at the atmospheric perspective and contrast so now I have something to take away and brush up on. Really, this is of greater benefit to me than if I drew a perfect image. 

I remain ever determined to continuously improve but most importantly, I'm still enjoying myself. Next time I'll have some sodden sketchbook scans for you so stay tuned.

Who am I? Why am I here?

I'm starting this blog at the start of my 1st year on Game Art at De Montfort. Here I will post my work, reflect on my progression and share any relevant thoughts I happen to have.

So who am I? Well my name is Jonah. Prior to this course I completed a BTEC in Art & Design at Exeter college. I made some great friends and worked (fairly) hard. I was lucky enough to have some excellent tutors and thoroughly enjoyed the course. So much so that it restored my faith in education and I decided university was for me.

I took a gap year to earn some money and thoroughly research what I planned to spend the next 3 years of my life on. I had a goal in mind but I took my time to find the best road to get there. I have absolutely no regrets about this. There are a lot of traps you can fall into when researching how to get into the games industry but that's probably a subject for another time.

Why Game Art? I'm passionate about Games and I'm passionate about Art. Art allows me to visually explore and understand the world around me. And fantasize about the worlds that aren't. Games offer the chance to literally create experiences. Experiences with a boundless potential to enjoy, educate and inspire.

My heart was absolutely set on Game Art at De Montfort so I was completely ecstatic (and a little relieved) when I found out I got in. This was in January so I had a while to wait. I was advised by my interviewer to prepare by taking a course in Life Drawing so I found one immediately. It turned out to be massively beneficial and worth every penny. I also continued working and saving until June, when I told myself I'd have a summer holiday before getting my head down.

I spent the summer blowing off steam. I traveled to Spain for 10 days of Skydiving in the sun. If you want to see me flailing in the air, there is a video. I also went to Rome with my family to soak up some culture and then went to Ireland for 2 weeks. It was a jam packed summer but when September came rolling around I was well and truly ready to go!

Blowing off steam.

Now that I'm here, it really is work time! The first few weeks have been really intense and it's an all round big adaptation. There is so much to learn already and the days don't feel long enough. But above all, even though I grumble about the work load, I love it! I've met masses of outgoing, interesting and all round lovely people. Being around so many like minded individuals has me feeling motivated and inspired. When I roll out of bed in the morning, even when I'm a little hung over, I feel like I'm moving with a purpose.

Currently my course is split between Game Production, Visual Design and Critical Studies. Critical Studies is a really exciting prospect and I'm thoroughly looking forward to it. Visual Design is exactly what I expected. Sketching in the cold and learning the fundamentals. Genuinely, way more fun than it sounds. 

First week of Visual Design, drawing Leicester Canal.

Second week of Visual Design, drawing the Medieval Archway.

Game Production is a whole new experience for me. Currently the main focus is learning 3D Studio Max and I have not encountered such a daunting program before. Digital 3D modelling is completely new to me but it has intrigued me for a long time. 

I'm naturally quite competitive and like things to be as good as I feel they can be. In a student environment tearing into the program feels safe and natural. My hunger to master the program has me running myself ragged but I've never felt myself learning so much and it feels good!

I will endeavor to update every week but it depends on how much work I have and whether or not I have something to write about. I'd like to only post when I have something to say but if the start of the course is any indication, I'll have a lot to talk about. It's definitely been an epic start and as I plunge head first into the course there is only one thing on my mind. Get better, get better, get better.