Easter Part 2: Finishing up the holiday

It's now the end of the Easter Holiday and while I have had a chance to work lots I've also had the time to relax a bit and do some more things just for me. It's always good as an artist to see some new things and expand their general knowledge. So I've took the time to see some of the sites a bit more which is quite hard because I've already seen all the galleries and museums in the area but this doesn't mean new things don't spring up.

So I've taken more time to have some walks around the nearby town of Evesham and my village 4 miles away (sometime it does suck to not have a car); and even though I've walked these tracks before it's always nice to see how some things and changed but also to see it in a new way since the way I try to see things has changed during my time on this course. I'm now trying to see the world in 3D, how the light hits surfaces and what the colours of made up of. It's also cool because it's spring and I live in the country so there are lots of flowers in the fields and lot's of life as the farms have so lovely new life with the chicks, goslings and lambs all running around causing trouble.

The next thing I've been doing is watching some movies at the cinema. Normally this may sound like not that view expanding but I love films and seen an unbelievable amount of them and learnt to think about many things differently (anyway I still read books). My local cinema is also a small independent one called The Regal and the best part about it is that because it's an old Victorian playhouse even though it's been renovated it is still amazing visually. It's been updated a bit but has this Art Deco theme to it which it pulls off. Lovely engraved ceilings and awesome patterns in the metalwork of the awnings keep the old vibe of the buildings origins. The red and gold of the interior with small candle lit tables on the ground floor which give this lovely cosy, calm feeling when you sit at them.

One of the films I watched this holiday was the Lego Movie this holiday and I've got to say it was absolutely fantastic. It has a lots of laughs with a nice story that has a thoughtful meaning which makes you think about the role it played in your childhood. The thing that I though was the best about it was how the 3D artists, animators and concept artists really made this amazing world of Lego come to life. Now you would think that to make the 3D models on a Lego movie would be easy and maybe for the artists they did find it easy but the interesting thing is that they really made each figure look like a little plastic man with little bits of trim or marks in the paint which does appear on Lego figures. They made the light hit it like how it does on real Lego and even though the general shape of the Lego figures and blocks is easy to get down its these little bits that suspend your disbelief and think about these characters and their plight. The animators also did and amazing job making wonderful use of how to make these figures move especially when you realise that there are very few degrees of movement and to create believable animations that associate with certain movements and gestures can be quite hard but they pulled it off which is another amazing thing. These parts and more worked together to craft an awesome experience which really made me see how the little things do make a big impact in media and this aspect could make or break a game as much as the big things.

How to do you animate something that can hardly move?

I also went to see a play recently at the RSC Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon which is nearby to my house and coincidentally it was on the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare. The play was The Roaring Girl by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton first published in 1611. The play itself is all about this woman called Moll Cutpurse who is a cross-dressing roaring girl who can manipulate anybody. Written in Shakespearean prose it was a funny comedy that was light hearted. The plays theme was on strong female characters and the designers at the RSC decided to mix up the Shakespearean dialogue with the aesthetics of Victorian London with the stage being a cobblestone street constantly steaming and lanterns being lit around the theatre in some scenes. I really enjoyed the experience an thought it was an enjoyable play.

I also had the time to get to grips with poses and animation more this last week. I drew some walk cycles and read more books to increase my knowledge of how this basic motion works. This was a fun exercise and I also learnt that Photoshop can make basic animations as well, check it out!

Next ones will be better that's the way the world works.

I also did a painting that I was proud of where I took more time to do the details.

I've still got along way to go but I'm improving slowly. I think the real thing is that this Easter I managed to keep doing some work everyday and I enjoyed it. I do however need to increase the amount I do everyday as sometimes it might only be a couple of A4 pages. I need to get lost more in my work instead of constantly say "I need to do this and this and this...".

References:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186422-d2534653-i61403332-The_Regal_Cinema-Evesham_Worcestershire_England.html
Photo of the regal cinema  published on Trip advisor provided by the management at the cinema

http://www.triciasmith.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/stalls-banner.jpg
Photo of the regal cinema taken by Tricia Smith 18/02.2012

http://postgamer.net/film-review-the-lego-movie/
Still from the Lego Movie published by Baaz 19/02/2014

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/still/00006454/the-lego-movie-image04.html
Still image form the movie

http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/the-roaring-girl/production-photos.aspx
All the photos of "The Roaring Girl" taken by Helen Maybanks

Easter Part 1: Kicking back and doing some work

The Easter Holidays have arrived and to have three weeks off is quite fun especially when the weather has been so very nice. I didn't get my shop job this holiday which means I've had a lot more time to kick, back relax and do some work. I'm quite happy because I have been taking advantage of this time to have a go at redoing some work from earlier this year, with new digital finals for many of the projects.

I kicked off the holiday by having a standard party but as the day carried on I decided much to start painting while my friends were all talking, so I did another Bradgate park paint. I had some trouble with the colour layer on this paint but it was an OK painting that took me two hours. The thing that I am happy with is that this proved I could keep doing work during the holiday.

Throughout the last two weeks I have redone the single point project, 2-point project, the self-portrait project and the guildhall project all with digital and traditional finals. I have also been doing more digital paintings that are mostly redo's of other projects finals. The car project, vehicle project, interesting character project and the reef character project. I also did a self-portrait sculpt to try and increase my understanding of the shape of a head in 3D space.

I have also been doing some pose studies using the people around me but also making use of the fantastic website posemaniacs. These drawings are in a new sketchbook which will be focusing on poses, figure studies, walk cycles and general understanding of shape and form. I am also trying to improve my line work in this sketchbook as well. I will try to get this book filled up before the end of the holiday in my last week. The best part though is that I'm happy that I'm drawing everyday of my own accord when I don't have to which is a good habit to be into and I know that if I keep it up my skills will continue to improve.

Posemaniacs :
http://www.posemaniacs.com/randompose

Bradgate Revisit (Another "How Far Have I Come?")

I know I have already done a post about how I've improved both over time in the space centre post and digitally in the blade runner digi paint post but I wanted to make one which ties it all together in a neat little packet and sets up the scene for my future over Easter, the Game Art course and my career in general.

Bradgate park is one seriously cool place just outside of Leicester and it is a place universally known for its amazing views and nature throughout the Game Art course here at DMU. It is ritual for first and second years to take trips there for their visual design work, to see the sights and do some epic art. I've always enjoyed this place and taken many trips there outside of lessons to explore the awesome landscape and draw some drawings. I've seen some pretty awesome views there that will stay with me for a long time.

In October our year visited the park and did the standard project some which consisted of thumbnails and a final. Here are some of the pictures that I came out with.

 After that I redid the project over the Christmas holidays. At that time I couldn't use Bradgate because I was back home but I am lucky enough to live in the heart of the Cotswolds and I have an epic view outside my window. Over this period I used some carbon pencils as well which have a slightly different effect but I know my rendering was improved and I captured this dark, tortured, cloudy sky. Here is a selection of what I produced.

My bedroom looks over the Vale of Evesham. Waking up to this view is a privileged.

This brings us up to present where we had another visit to Bradgate on a much sunnier warmer day. It was a shame the leaves weren't on the trees yet but spirits were high and we had a fun time looking forward to the future and having a laugh. There were some antics as one of our troupe (Denzil) fell into the stream flowing through the park which was hilarious.

Watch the video of the fail here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=766084423403782

After that Denzil being the professional badass he is dusted himself off and got to work like the rest of us; and we produced some awesome images.

Now here Is where it ties in to the digital stuff like I mentioned earlier. I then did an extra final digitally in about 2 hours work time. I am really proud of this and has widened my eyes as to what I'm capable of digitally and really inspired me to what I can do.

started of as a grey scale wip

with colour overlay then a normal layer on top for some corrections and fine detail.

Now when I was creating this and when I finished this I definitely got this feeling in my stomach I was doing the right thing. Over the last few weeks things have really accelerated in both my personal work ethics and in my studies at the uni. Things are all clicking into place and I've got this urge to do more and more and more and push myself, become skilled, to sculpt, to write, to think and use critical thought. To evaluate what I do and what others do and go the extra mile to achieve what I can. This course has taken a leap and now I know that this is undeniably the course for me because it has allowed me to grow as a person in 1000's of ways. I am not the same man I was when I joined the course and if all the changes are for the better is debatable and often depends on perspective but I am getting more excited to be in this environment every day now.

quick landscape I knocked out in 15 mins. I need to become quicker.

It will be interesting to see if I keep this up over Easter and where before I was unsure now I'm certain I am going to maintain or maybe even increase my productivity. If I am successful in this endeavour it will effect my mentality forever and I hope there is an awesome future ahead of me.

Guildhall final 2 hours

GAC-Game Art Conference 2014

This week I attended an extended critical studies session in the library called the Game Art Conference, and it was pretty awesome. Based on past experiences of things like this from previous education, where you would spend the whole day listening to people talking constantly but not actually saying anything. I thought this wouldn't be inspiring or informative but I couldn't believe how wrong I was.

The day started up bright and early as the year sat down for the introduction talks setting up the structure for the day. The day was to be divided into 4 time periods where you could choose to attend one of three different time classes in these periods. This was a fantastic idea because it meant that you could choose to tailor the day to your own needs and maximize your growth in the subjects.

My first session I attended was called "Learning From Your Peers" in which some of us first years got an opportunity to hear what the course was like from a third and second year perspective. We got to explore how the course has changed since we came and talk about the effect moving to a new faculty and building had on the community. This gave us a chance to understand more about why this course is good because we share ideas in a studio based environment. I've come to the realisation that I really do need to spend more time in labs on the higher floors so I can get more opportunities to learn from fellow students who have already gone through my plight and learnt so much.

After that I attended a "Have a Go" session where we got to review our blogs and do some more posts. I took this opportunity to finish some drafts of posts I was writing (see my digital painting post). One thing that also happened out of this was that I got a chance to look through other peoples blogs which I hadn't actually seen before. This put what I was doing in perspective and gives me a benchmark to use. This has affected me and I'm now going to follow more industry professionals blogs so I can see what is out there, what to work to and what I've got to become better than if I want a job.

Next session was another informative period where Chris and Mitch (VD tutors) took us through an exploration of our critical thinking skills. We looked at the art direction of The Last Of Us and saw how the creative language provided to the concept artists helped shape the game visually. This jumped out at me because I was always unsure how producers and publishers who are sometimes extremely un-artistic might plan and pitch games which could have such amazing visual meaning behind it.

We then applied the skills we just talked about in a group exercise where we evaluated stills from movies like Aliens and... Blade Runner (good thing I just evaluated that). This was a fun practise of using verbal communication to describe the visual side of something.

Next we had to verbalise key words in 30 seconds and then describe a scene for the future Last Of Us film.

My one was the idea of having two figures in the foreground on a sun-baked road in a city where the evening sun cast long shadows from the dark dilapidated buildings. A light sky contrasts the dark purple/blue shadows. On the side of the road there is a ruined signpost that is being engulfed by trees and or weeds that entwine themselves around the metal and block out the name of the city representing how the civilization of man is lost now and nature is reclaiming it. Trashed cars show how man has abandoned the old lifestyles and gone to live in the wilds. Ellie and Joel are now walking through this ghost town.

What was crazy is that my description got chosen to be visually interpreted by Mitch who turned it into the coolest concept art! Check it out!

Remember this was made by Mitch Small I was just the art director.

I really thought the day was a well constructed day with plenty of things to learn and because of the choice you felt like you controlled your learning process and not like you were being leaded along. I would really like this to happen every year and If possible bring the other years into it more so it becomes a real mixing learning together situation. Also it would be great to see If any ex-students turned professional could come join in with future ones and eventually make it like a proper conference.

Make way GDC here comes GAC!

Digital Painting update

If you remember a couple of weeks ago I had the reef character project where I did enjoy some aspects but during the project I stumbled when it came to digital painting. Since then I've been doing a bit more digi painting and in such a short time I have noticed a slight improvement which is encouraging and I know I need to do more if I want to get good. I'm still having some trouble with colors so I'm going to read up some books on color theory and start doing simple paintings that are more about color then shape or form, so lots of seascapes is a good idea because I can get used to getting color right and also brush types and what kind of brush is best for me.

I have been seeking the advice of some of my peers who are very talented at digital panting and so far have received many opposing views for a beginner like me so I coming to a conclusion that many have sort have figured it out by themselves and it's a very personal journey. Some say find brush that suits you, others to only stick to the standard default brush until i'm more knowledgeable. Many different techniques are being thrown my way and I'm not quite sure where to go.

Just because i'm confused it doesn't mean that I can't try things out anyway. I recently did a digital piece of a still from the film Blade Runner this was just a grey scale but I was taking more time to blend the strokes to make the values work.

I've also done some color thumbnails for the recent Bradgate project. I had some trouble with color and changed brushes so I could try different ways of working.

I'm quite happy with my progress but I still realize that I have along way to go.

Career Roadmap

Even though I'm still not 100% on where I want to go in my career I understand that I need to be planning for the future now. There are many amazing fields to get involved in concept art, environment artist, 3D artist and Animators are roles that particularly interest me and are subjects that I want to get involved in. However, every time I research more about roles in the industry and further explore sites like Gamasutra I find that there are lots of different jobs that are less well known but still things I find interesting. Things like storyboard artists and pre visualization jobs get my mind flowing with ideas and make me question exactly where I want to go.

This doesn't mean that I shouldn't walk around unsure of what to do. The best course of action is to keep learning in my own time and concentrating on practising my skills. I will also make a roadmap towards a career I'm interested so I can work on what skills to improve upon and learn. I will do this by going on the companies websites and look at what the requirements for a job are.

JOB :

Environment Artist at Arkane Studios in Lyon, France.

Responsibilities:

The main responsibilities of the job will be to model and texture 3D assets using concept art and/or reference materials to assist me. Follow the Art Directors  standards so the games style is the same in the modelling, lighting and textures. I must also make sure the work is compliant with technical specifications and create feedback for the Lead Environment Artist, Art Director and Level Architect.

Requirements:

Advanced knowledge of  Maya(3D) and Photoshop skills are required as well as a strong passion for iconic culture (comics, movies, books and other games). I must also have a good knowledge of normal map creation software packages like Zbrush or xNormal. Experience with engines like Unreal, Cryengine and Unity is a plus. Good English communication skills (written and verbal) are also required.


My Response:
So there is lots to learn, the software packages like Maya, Zbrush and xNormal are something I must study further (as well as improving my photoshop skills too of course). It said engine experience is a plus so it will be fantastic to learn those to improve any chances. Looking at soft skills, good English communication is massively important especially when you have to go back and forth between the Art Director, Lead Artists and Level Architects. I have spotted something else that might be a plus. Even though English is required the studio itself is in France so being able to speak French is also a plus in case any employees are better at speaking in French and might find it hard to verbalise complex directions in English.


Plan of Action:
So I was already starting to learn Zbrush but over Easter get to grips with it some more and keep setting projects for every two or three weeks for the rest of the year. I will also take a look at Maya in the summer and see more about that and as I improve on my 3DSmax skills also see how to do the same things in Maya. Photoshop skills will constantly be improved in my 3D and 2D lessons so just keep doing work that is set as well as personal work and it should be fine. Learning French has already begun because I'm planning on visiting Canada but I must remember to really keep it up. My dad speaks French fluently because we used to live there and I must practice by having conversations with him in the language. My writing skills really need to improve as well as my grammar and spelling is quite atrocious (spelt that right first time).

References:

Job details and information
http://jobs.zenimax.com/requisitions/view/527