Guest Lecture

Yesterday was the guest lecture from Michael Morgan, who was a graduate from DMU, and who has worked for Lucas Arts creating animations for various works whilst he was there.

                He first started with the types of projects that he had been working on for example; Star Wars: Clone Wars, the series, and showed images and video clips of the work in a montage, to show the episodes he had animated. He then went on to explain how the motion is created and how the lip syncing of the characters was done which was very interesting as i showed skills needed that are achieved from the animation course. I was glad that he’d told us how to achieve the desired scene.

                I found most of the information helpful, the types of work spaces that can be found when working in films and in games, also the companies that look for work from the UK, this involves travelling to places such as Singapore. I found that it was mostly focused on animation, which probably was to be expected when he announced he was a animation student, but the things he talked about were useful and easily transferrable to the game art course. Because he had been a DMU student, i found it reassuring as he knew the situation we all are in and could relate to it himself, and he went on from DMU to become a successful animator. 

My Personal Gaming History

               My first games console that i got was an original Nintendo Game boy, i only had two games for the Game boy which were super Mario and Tetris of which i played many hours. Second console was the saga mega drive at the age of 5-6 where sonic the hedgehog won the prize for most played, also most frustrating, i moved onto other games during my time as a mega drive owner, such titles as, Double Dragon, which was a classic beat’em up with element of side scrolling games added and great two player fun, Twin Cobra, one of those, shoot everything and see what’s the highest score you can possibly get, and Echo the dolphin one very relaxed game to play. These are only a few of the games i played.

                The next step up from the Sega mega drive for me was the Playstation from Sony, and this was, at the time, the one console that i didn’t expect big things from. I only rarely bought Playstation games so few games are remembered, games like, metal gear solid, dragon ball z, tomb raider etc... I believe i played more titles later on in the future of the consoles life.

                So, two years later, Nintendo 64 was released. This console was my most attention grabbing console, just because of the superior graphics compared with the consoles i owned previously. The Nintendo 64 console lasted me about two years when it finally stopped working. That event completely discouraged me from Nintendo consoles, although in my opinion they are still dominant in handhelds and their newest console the Wii I rather enjoy.

                In 2001 i had a Playstation 2 console, the ps2 was the console that really made Playstation for me due to its vast range of titles available. The games of my teenage years include, Time crisis, which was great fun with the controller being a gun pointed at the screen, which i thought was awesome, the start of the next gen GTA series beginning with GTA 3, moving to Vice City and the biggest selling episode, San Andreas.

                Between the time of the Playstation 3’s release and the previous ps2 launch, i moved slightly into the realm of computer gaming with only the one game owned, for a computer, by me, counter strike source, this game is what got me through the wait for the Playstation 3 which was about 5 years since i got the game was the ps3 released.

                The Playstation 3 was the console i most looked forward to; i remember looking at footage on the internet of newest in-game screenshots of the amazing graphics and processing power. Then, when finally released, resistance and motor storm were the two games that i played, the ps3 still is still my choice of console over the past 3 and a half years since release, many other games were bought and played on this console, i think it’s the most games I’ve ever had for a single console.

                Up to now, the games that i have played have gotten unbelievably good with mind blowing speed in such a short 20 years that i think they surely can only get better and bigger. Looking at these improvements over the years i would hope for games in the future to have better graphics and processing power, also improved memory on discs to vastly increase game accessibility and length. So i think, and hope that games of the future will deliver the goods that we expect them to bring to the table in the upcoming years of gaming.

13/01/11

Read the design brief for the next project which is the ford transit van, I’ve been out hunting for a transit van to take pictures of and finally found one, I thought there were going to be loads, but only found the one on eastern boulevard.

                I took some pictures of the front, sides and back of the main body of the van, then got into some close ups of the detail, such as the badge and then pictures of the lights ready to use for the separate texture sheet needed for the lights.

10/01/11

Today finished a quick digital paint to illustrate motion on behalf of my vehicle in the design project. the picture is purely to give a sense of how the boat would be seen travelling through the water.

History of video games 2000’s

The start of the 21^st century brought about the biggest developments in gaming history, There were many different types of developments from a variety of companies.

Nokia N-Gage

                Moblie gaming was the forefront of these new gaming advancements with the launch of the Nokia N-gage in 2003, with its superior graphics to its previous competition, the mobile phone, it was a great success. Other smart phones were released by competition that played video games with similar standards to the N-Gage, Apple released their product, the iPhone in 2007, this only strengthened the appeal of mobile gaming even further.

Apple's iPhone

Sony Playstation 2

                Sixth generation consoles were the next big development of the twenty-first century. The Nintendo giants fell behind, this made way for the Sony Playstation 2 to top the market before 2001 when Microsoft released the xbox. The xbox, based on the pc’s intel Pentium III cpu to provide it’s power. This brought around a huge increase in the popularity of ‘open world’ genre, massively influenced by the announcement of ‘Grand theft auto III’ rocketing the market further. There was also higher demand for ‘Mature’ rated games like Halo and resident evil.

                The alternate controller phase took the industry by force with the introduction of such games as ’Dance Dance revolution’ with the soft foot mat controller and Sony’s ‘Guitar Hero’ using the novelty guitar-shaped controller on the Playstation 2.

Original XBox

                Also, the cheaper, and more affordable broadband connections boosted the online using of games to an all time high. This increase mainly contributed to the pc games, with the pc possessing an integrated modem along with the accessibility of the pc at this time, world of warcraft, just one of the pc’s massive array of online games. Secondly to the scene was Sega with the dreamcast, which also contained a modem. Next in line were Sony and their answer to the dreamcast, an attachable modem to be used with ‘Final fantasy XI’ along with the launch of Microsoft xbox live, these left the dreamcast’s popularity at a low and so Sega retired to a 3^rd party company.

                Casual pc gaming on the increase, small puzzle games were on the menu for pc games and influenced a massive game that hit the market big and took it by storm, ‘the sims’. The popularity of this genre brought about opportunities for casual pc gaming to advance the market yet again.

Nintendo DS

Microsoft XBox 360

                The seventh generation console release could probably be said to be a milestone in technological achievement throughout the world and the big giants were launching consoles to keep with this generation, the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP were hugely sold, DS attracting younger and mid-aged consumers with the interactive capabilities, whilst the PSP was a hit with the veteran gamers because of the superior graphics and power. Consoles were not that far behind, in 2005 Microsoft launch the xbox 360 to have Sony follow up in 2007 with the PS3, both these consoles almost matching the processing power of the high ranged pcs at that time. This was nintendo’s comeback and they released the Wii just after the PS3, this really put them back on the map with it’s revolutional motion sensor remote controls. In 2009 Microsoft and Sony release their reply to Nintendo with their own sensors, xbox kinect and PS3 move.

Sony Playstation 3

                The start of the twenty-first century was a great contribute to the future of the gaming industry and will continue to inspire for years ahead.