Abbey Pumping Station

This week we visited the Abbey Pumping Station. Unfortunately I didn't have a proper wander round learn anything about the history of Leicester because I was desperately getting sketches down during the limited time we were there. Being winter the pumping station is usually closed, so I wasn't able to return - instead I worked from a few photographs after I'd done as many initial sketches as I could fit in.

For this week I was specifically focusing on shading and trying not to get too caught up in the line drawing. Instead I'd shade as I'd add tone as I went along, emphasising depth more than accuracy of form.

Abbey Pumping Station final

Have a Hobbit-Happy Birthday

Spent a couple of hours making a birthday card for Chris. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed doing this sort of thing.

Reunited with the Steering Wheel

This weekend I worked on some more car studies (since I feel I didn't do enough last week), thanks to being at home and having a subject that I knew for sure wouldn't drive off and disappear on me.

Vehicle Final Piece

Still Life

For this week in visual design we were looking at still life, however to warm up we first did a few pages of blind contour drawings of our fellow students. These were a bit of a nightmare but quite funny to do and compare with others.

There was a desk in the centre of the studio with various odd and interesting objects displayed on it. Unfortunately there was not too much time so I didn't get as many sketches done as I had hoped.

So this morning I set about arranging my own still life on my desk before I set off home for the weekend. I arranged a few objects considering lighting and composition, then set about sketching the scene.

Still Life Final Piece

Life Drawing

Today we used charcoal again and I think I've improved a bit on last week.. though now I have a black rubber again...

2 minute poses

2 minute poses

30 minute pose?

40 minute pose?

I'm really bad at remembering how long I spent on each of these...

Architectural Project - Complete!

I have finally finished my building! I had a little issue this week in that I was unable to save my alpha textures as targa files on my version of Photoshop (7.0.. ancient, I know) and show I had to keep transferring the files back and forth from my friend's CS6 in order to edit and save them properly. (It might be worth investing in a later version...)

Although I was happy overall with the alphas, the positioning of the planes annoyed me. When zoomed out from the building, the planes began flickering, as if they were too close to the wall behind them. However, zoomed in there is a noticeable distance between the wall and the plane. Perhaps a way to get around this next time would be to make the plane slightly larger in size so that the distance isn't noticed? I don't know...

So to finish off I went into the labs this morning to finish off my height maps and test them out on CrazyBump. I found that when applied to the model they sometimes had an odd effect - making certain polygons more shaded than others at certain angles, for instance.

Now everything is tidied up and finalised, with all of the references, textures and renders in their allocated folders. Here is the finished model:

Vehicle studies

Looking at cars this week! Despite it being incredibly cold outside, I enjoyed drawing these. I should probably focus more on rendering though, since they all seem to be line sketches.. old habits die hard I suppose.

History of Games - 1980s to 1990s

A lot can happen in a short amount of time. Although the 80s holds some very well-known and successful products in the game industry, it is also known for the fall.

In terms of successful games at the beginning of the decade, Namco released Pac-Man in 1980, while Nintendo released Donkey Kong in 1981 which was also widely successful. Shortly after in 1982, Midway released Ms. Pac-Man, which became the biggest arcade game in American history. The original designer of Pac-Man was not involved in the creation of the game, instead it was designed by nine university students. It was an improvement on the previous best-selling game, with faster movement, more mazes, and more challenging ghosts. Over 100,000 Pac-Man­ and over 150,000 Ms. Pac-Man machines were sold - more than any other arcade game.

At a similar time, the Commodore 64 was released - an 8-bit home computer with a slot for game cartridges as well as a separate floppy disk drive that could hold more data. This attracted many new games companies to the market, probably the most successful being Electronic Arts.

However it wasn't all sunshine and sales in the game industry. Firstly, a connection between gaming and truancy began to emerge into the public eye. Governments called for restrictions on minors being allowed to play arcade games, due to the sheer popularity and amount of time people spent playing on them. But more notably, in 1982 Atari released an ET game, based off Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie, for the VCS. Although the leaders were confident it would sell well, the manufacturers were unhappy with it, especially considering the incredibly short amount of time they were given to create the game. In the end, due to its disappointing play and basic graphics, the game was a bust and millions of worthless game cartridges were dumped by the company. Despite the crash for Atari in America, its international market kept fairly steady in Europe and Japan.

Another important moment in the 80s is the invention of Tetris, designed by Soviet Russion mathematician Alexey Pajitnov is 1985. I don't think it needs saying how successful that particular game was..

Meanwhile Nintendo kept on ploughing through time, releasing the Famicon in Japan in 1984 (which was a big improvement on previous video computer systems), and it's American version - the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. At the same time, Sega released Master System and Atari made a comeback with the 7800 game console, leaving the trio of new releases to battle it out in the market.

Then in 1987 Nintendo did it again, this time releasing The Legend of Zelda. After its success in Japan, there was concern of it appealing to American audiences - the game had a much more complex story line than previous games, and involved boxes of text. However their worries were of no need, to the dismay of my tutors who are convinced that the game ruined game art forever.

Nearing the end of the 80s, consoles were beginning to fade away as PC games became more popular, notably with the release of Wolfenstein 3D. However, computers were not all the rage since Nintendo's release of the Game Boy in 1989 witnessed immediate success, and its sales did not slow down even after superior products were being created and released. In fact, its sales were so high and steady that the product was only discontinued in 2003.

So, into the 90s. It is around this time where I start recognising games from my own childhood...

References:

Kent, S L. 2001. The Ultimate History of Video Games. Prima Publishing.

Image References:
donhodges.com, giantbomb.com,

I'd much prefer to unwrap presents

Righto, quick update on the building before I continue working on it today. This week was a little more productive than last week (and by that I mean I spent a hell of a lot of time on it, but I haven't progressed anywhere near as much as I though I would have).

After completing the model I spent a while sorting out smoothing groups on the whole building before creating the textures for tiling. I decided to make each tile texture a 512. These weren't too bad and were actually almost enjoyable to make.

I could then start unwrapping. My only worry was since I chose another 512 texture sheet for the windows and doors, the quality would be quite poor when zoomed in. I guess we'll find out soon.

To finish the texturing I plan to use a 512 for the alphas and a 1024 for the remaining polygons. I started laying down planes for the alpha textures and noticed that although I'd placed them a little in front of the building itself, they would flicker when zoomed out. Not sure what to do about that.

I spent pretty much the whole of yesterday just unwrapping the 1024 sheet. Who knew it would take so long? I spent an hour on drainpipes alone!

Plan for this week is to finish the texturing (including alphas) as soon as possible so that I can start working on bump and specular maps. Wish me luck!

Dem dry bones...

Last week we headed to the New Walk museum to do some sketches of dinosaurs (horray for the warmth of the indoors!) which was quite enjoyable. Below are some of the pages:

At some points I tried to focus solely on the rendering rather than sketching lines.. Though this method is pretty tricky because it's so easy to want to get back into the habit of drawing the outline! I guess it's something I'll have to work on..

Considering this week's drawing project was located indoors, I don't think I spent as much time on it as I probably should have. (Most likely because I was getting tired and was distracted by the excitement of my family coming to visit for the weekend.) Better up the pace for the following weeks!

Complications and Hesitations

About time for an update on the building project!

This week was a bit of a downer - I felt deflated on the Monday when it was suggested I should pick another building and start over, due to the Guildhall being a difficult one to do. Apparently it's not suitable for me to only produce one 'side' instead of all four, including the courtyard in the centre. So I started panicking over my ability and more importantly the time available for this project - I know that texturing will be a challenge and take longer than the modelling.

I managed to go inside the Guildhall and view the courtyard.. though I wish I hadn't. The other side of the building is so different from the front and I realised it would be a nightmare to re-do. I'd already modelled the courtyard side but even what I'd done there was wrong - the inside roof was long, on one side it was deeper, plus there was a balcony with stairs and an outdoor corridor to consider.

I started adding another part of the building, but it was taking so long and I was worried about running out of time. Instead I decided to stick to my guts stick to the original plan of just working on one side, but try to make it as impressive as I can (perhaps with railings and maybe even a lamp post). Not to mention I was feeling homesick, which didn't help.

I messed up

So unfortunately I achieved near to nothing in this second week because I 'umm'-ed and 'ahh'-ed and struggled and tried and failed and hesitated and worried... So back to square 1. It may be basic but it's what I can achieve at this level - surely it's better to achieve something good at my level then beak down on the way to making something more advanced?

Finished model