Nuit Blanche

This film is really stunning:

It's beautiful to look at, with very poster-esque shots, framing and overall style. I'm really impressed by it, it makes me want to create things as visually impacting. I'm not too sure where exactly I want my future career to lead at the moment, but if it were towards something as visually powerful as this I'd be pretty chuffed.

The slow-motion in it is quite seamless - it only enhances the idea trying to be shown, with the music adding to it's soft yet stunning power. My favourite moment is the woman stepping through her reflection and the glass, the layout is brilliant and, once the glass smashes, looks slightly otherworldly.

I was shocked once I saw the making of, I didn't realise how much work and detail was put into making this.

  

It's a compliment to the amount of work put in that you don't realise just how many layers and level of detail was added in post-production. From each character being individually green screened to the sidewalk being added in later it's all quite seamless, perhaps helped by the stylish black and white colouring used. The overall result is a short film with incredibly breath-taking imagery which just looks amazing.

Reference Book

Throughout this year - especially during the film module (- when having to storyboard) I realised I have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to drawing characters in different poses and angles. I decided to start a 'reference book' and fill it with images that I might find useful to draw upon when creating characters or just to practise drawing different faces/poses. I've found it quite useful (for example the drawings of mine above are referenced from the book) and intend to keep adding to it when I find interesting/ useful images. I don't want to become dependant on it, but think it is a very handy aid and will hopefully help me improve. 

The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword...Meh...

I love The Legend of Zelda, so it pains me to admit, after completing 'The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword' that I was...a little disappointed. Maybe I'm stuck in my N64 loving ways, but I just don't think it's anywhere near as 'epic' as Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. 


It's not a bad game though, it's fun (especially the side-quests in Skyloft - a little like the ones in Clock Town in Majora's -the characters develop a little so quite a lot of time can be wasted helping them out) and the Wii Motion Plus works really well for the gameplay, it becomes second nature to flick or swish the wii-mote to use the sword and immerses yourself into the game. When the enemy gets difficult you find yourself on your feet fighting as if you were there. It's not perfect, but at least it doesn't seem that gimmicky, every movement has been considered to help along the story.


But it's the story that doesn't seem to do it for me, perhaps after all the hype my expectations were too high, or after Twilight Princess it seems a bit too light (I personally think the games are more dramatic when darker - such as in Majora's Mask), but I just found myself not really caring about the main storyline and wanting to stay up in Skyloft, because really what was down below? Just big Levels really, not a land to discover and explore, but tasks to constantly prove yourself. And Zelda. Who every time you almost find, goes away again...argh. I liked Zelda in the other games, because she was Wise and tough, in this I just found her annoying so wasn't too fussed she get's 'lost' - and in fairness, when half of Skyloft (including her father) don't seem to care, it's hard to muster much enthusiasm.


With this in mind I find 'Fi', the companion for this game, a bad choice of character. Her robotic tendencies may fit your sword, but takes away any emotion from a cinematic once she chimes in with 'there's a 80% chance this is what you just saw'. What was interesting in 'Twilight Princess' was the development of your relationship with Midna, 'Skyward Sword' doesn't take anything from this companionship, and instead gives you something cold and metallic.


However, this is just my opinion, the game has gotten great reviews - as seen here: http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/121/1212220p1.html so it's doing something right, but I just can't agree with the claim it's better than Ocarina of Time.

Sectors and Services (Lectures)

This lecture enlightened us on 'What does what'  in the UK Economy 'the 7th Largest Economy in the world'

The main areas in the economy are:

Primary Sector - extraction and harvesting of natural resources

Secondary Sector - Processing, manufacturing and construction.

Tertiary Sector - Knowledge and services

but there are these sectors: 

1st Sector - Public

2nd Sector - Private

3rd Sector - Volunraty

However - due to the nature of our course, the main interest taken from this Lecture is 'The Creative Industries'. We need to be aware what is out there, what it does, and who is looking for us and where. There is a range of different Industries labelled under 'Creative', from Architecture to Crafts, Film Video and Photography to Television and Radio. We have always got to be aware of where our funding is coming from (as the Government cut budgets for certain  Creative activities) and the support that independent companies give. 'Creative England' is a company set up for Yorkshire in Yorkshire which supports creative Industries - this will hopefully be very useful to the creative climate here.

Applying to 'The Network'

So when I heard about 'The Network' I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss. (Details of the programme are Here) Not only is it during Edinburgh Festival - (which I went to last year and absolutely loved - the vibe of the city is incredibly) but seems to give so many brilliant Television and networking opportunities to novices.

I love great television and think I'd like to be part of making shows that are exciting and clever. For example, shows such as Doctor Who, Misfits, Being Human, Sherlock and Horrible Histories. They're shows that are obviously really well made - and thought through, attempting to bring something new and fun to an audience.

Whether or not I get in, I'm glad I applied, as it's given me an opportunity to think about what is important to me in my future career and is motivating me to go try out and experience new things.

Copyright (Lecture) ©

Copyright law is not moving fast enough to keep up with the Internet. Today it is second nature to share data, to remix and restyle content with the internet. Copyright law aims to give the owner control over their own material. It covers:

- Copying
- Adapting
- Distributing
- Communicating to the public by transmission
- Public Performance - Therefore technically some buskers are infringing copyright (unless they've covered it with their city council) when singing some songs on the street.
- Renting and Lending
- Mutilating Defacing or distorting.

If content is put on the internet however these laws are only covered in the UK, therefore if America wanted to take some content they could.

Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation that allows legal sharing, this is used for example, on deviant art where some people want to share textures. However they can have certain demands and still ask for credit.

Creative Industries (Lecture)

During this Lecture we were given some statistics regarding the number of People employed under different industries, the below illustrates the key industries that are relevant to this course:

Employment Figures - TV + Radio - 100,000

Music, visual and performing arts - 280,000

Games/ software development etc - 723,000

I was quite shocked by the significant difference between TV and Radio and the more electronic based Industry of Games. 600,000 more employees work in this industry than in Television. It's made me consider keeping my options open, whilst I do really like the idea of working in TV, if there aren't any jobs going, it would be good to still have the option of applying to a slightly different field. It shows that despite 'Games' having a reputation of targeting a 'niche' audience, they infact sell incredibly well and are a good source of business and creativity.

This is further illustrated in the stats for the number of businesses in general under each Industry in the UK.

Video, Photography  + Film - 11,000

TV + Radio = 6,000

Games - 75,000

Despite this though Game Designers are constantly being enticed to move to Canada due to the Tax breaks for animation and games.

In order to utilise the UK and stop film companies going abroad to shoot, Screen Yorkshire 

are prompting people to film up north, to increase Yorkshire and the UK's publicity as well as illustrating we have the resources here. 

Full Circle

  

http://vimeo.com/37077712

I saw this video a while back and found the camera work really nice, I didn't realise that it was a fashion film. On discovering this I think the choice of camera work is even more clever, not only in capturing the interest with the 'skipping rope effect' but also, without really realising, you are shown a 360 view of the clothing of each person.

My Finished Scene - Ancient UFO Crash Site

Unity Web Player | Final_Scene_Web

« created with Unity »

Final Crit and Developing from it.

Our Final Crit allowed us to showcase our progress so far and gain feedback (anonymous or otherwise) from our peers. It was useful as aspects of the gameplay had been over looked by myself - for example, you could escape the environment - and get stuck behind some objects. It also made me realise that the tree looked really bad in the environment, so I decided to change the texture a little - lessening the bump-map.

After the Crit I created some more assets and re-did my terrain, as I realised the practice I did didn't look like a forest at all. I decided using images on planes of forest would help create the illusion of forest without having to add so many trees - it would also give me some natural diversity between the trees (as they're all different). 

Floor Plan and Concept art

Just a few final drawings to map out my setting and how i'm wanting it to look in my head.

Sound Design - Environment

I wanted overall, ambient music/background noise to create the sort of mystical, calm, peaceful, slightly eery feel I want my setting to have. Something along the lines of the below music (and the Davyd song I already linked in a blog post HERE)





I'm really grateful that my brother helped me out and taking on these suggestions created some background music for me in Garageband.

Social Media (Lecture)

We're living in an environment where networks are natural to us, the internet connects the world and is used constantly. This lecture highlighted the importance of certain sites - and how they can be used to develop ones 'Professional image'.

We were introduced to a range of different Social Networking Sites (here are very brief notes on a few) :

Red Bubble - A place of art, design and writing - a place where you can sell you're work.

Linked In- A place for Professional, a business directory.

Myspace - Changed from a general social networking site to a place for bands and new music.

Flickr - Share Photos, link to blog etc.

SlideShare3 - Powerpoint presentation

Digg - People have the opportunity to 'vote' whether they like things

Skype - Free face to face time and file transfer.

Social Media allows us the opportunity to Publish, Share, Discuss and Socialise with other people, it allows us to present our work how we'd like it shown (for example Youtube allows videos to be made and published easily - avoiding any real input from third parties/ organisations to change scripts and ideas etc.) 

We were given some 'Top Tips for Successful Blogs

- Be Social

- Visit other Blogs

- Respond to comments

- Be Generous

- Subscribe  by email

- Share

- Assume everything's permanent 

- Be original 

- Create a news feed.

- Interview somebody

- Post Frequently

- Left align your writing

- Don't copy and paste from word

- End on a question

- Use Paragraphs

- Credit your Sources

These are useful tips, though are quite hard to follow properly due to the nature of our College Blogs. (As we are required to post Lecture notes etc, and are focused more on fitting to a brief). This therefore has made me consider starting another blog, perhaps on Tumblr (as that is a more social platform than Blogger it seems). 

I also started a Twitter account around the time of this lecture, and found it useful for networking and discovering new and interest videos/concept-art/news, it is also helpful in linking the world to our work and contacting professionals as well as being aware of work they are creating.

The Hobbit and it's frames per second

So there's been a bit of a fuss over the frame rate of the upcoming film 'The Hobbit'. Peter Jackson has chosen to use high-resolution RED Epic cameras recording at a resolution of 2700 pixel at 48 frames per second for the film, as he claims 24 fps blurs, and this higher frame rate is clearer and works better in 3D.
However, after a viewing of 10 minutes the film's aesthetic has been criticised as looking 'too real', losing a cinematic feel and instead seeming like behind the scenes footage. Normally in cinema 24 frames per second is used (and in TV America: 29.97 fps, Europe: 25 fps), which seems to serve well in creating dramatic and epic looking content, so will 48 fps be a step forward or back?

The trailer doesn't illustrate the effect having 48 fps will have on the footage - as it is not being shown in the right format, therefore it'll probably be best to judge by seeing the film. It's hard to imagine that Jackson would purposefully do something to hurt the franchise that he treasures, but we'll have to see.

Either way, I'm super excited for the film and can't wait to see how it turns out - though if it's style doesn't receive a good reception then it'll be interesting whether they want to and/or are able to change it for the second half.

Reference Article: PCMAG 

Main Tree coming together

I wasn't too happy with the texturing of the tree - it looked messy and the colour didn't work that well. In Unity it looked awful and bare. So I've changed the UV texture a little - making it paler, and added a lot more twigs and leaves - as well as wires etc. I'm not sure to make it greener. We'll have to see...

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King video game.

I'm a little stuck in my ways and don't really have any of the new consoles myself, so thought I'd have a little play on my beloved Gamecube for some research for my own game setting.
I ended up playing 'Lord of the Rings: Return of the King' - since I've looked in general at Lord of the Rings and my setting seems to be quite inspired by it. The game may not have the best graphics but I find really fun - especially on multiplayer.


Quite a few 'levels' are just arena's to fight - which was quite useful to see the use of space.

One level I found quite useful was 'Road to Isengard', as it's through a forest. My setting at the moment, despite my intentions for it to be in a forest, doesn't look like it's in one, so looking at the way trees have been made here - they seem quite simply but effectively textured and built. I'm probably going to have to model a few more trees and broken logs for my setting. I am also considering creating a sort of 'backdrop' of tall trees - which would save having to add a lot of trees on with terrain - and should be effective since the first person controller shouldn't reach it.

The game also showed how terrain can be textured to create a sense of location - and that I shouldn't worry too much about 'bare' areas as long as i texture the ground enough.

looking at - Origin: Spirits of the Past

'Origin - Spirits of the Past' is an anime film set 300 years in the future in a dystopian Japan.

Neutral City

The main city in the film, 'Neutral City', is carved out of old ruins and debris, mixing with the forest. The buildings and structures are all worn and broken. These are qualities I want in my setting, I want an ancient old feel to the wreckage - and plants etc to illustrate the length of time they have been there. My ship at the moment, is quite 'clean' in this sense - so I should edit the texture, adding a lot of cracks in the main frame, to show it is crumbling.

What is an Evaluation?

We had a Lecture on 'How to write an Evaluation', since we have to evaluate each Module we complete.
We were told to avoid these three phrases:

- I'm Pleased with my work...
- I worked hard...
- I think I made good progress

Instead we should be more critical of our work, using specifics of what went wrong, went right, and what we can improve on. We should also be more confident in our statements (hence avoiding phrases such as 'I think' or 'I suppose') I realise sometimes I do this with words such as 'probably', as sometimes I'm not too certain in my evaluation, I should attempt to be more assertive in future evaluations.