3D and Sketchfab!

OK so during the course we do 2D visual design and 3D game production where we look at creating 3D objects and putting them in engines. We have so far only been using 3DS Max, Photoshop and Crazybump (for our normals). I also recently found a very good website recently after recommendation from my tutor. Its call Sketchfab and it allows you to view the 3D models other people have made in a 3D viewport. This allows you to rotate and pan around the model. You can also select to see the wireframe so you can look at their geometry. Another thing that is good about this website is that it allows you to embed these 3D images so you can post them on facebook. I thought I would upload a small practice model I made of the branch of a tree.

Here is a link to it: https://sketchfab.com/show/2e2d0c9692f64faabd761a8d2a22e93e

More Pictures

Here are some more photos of the work I have been producing on the course. Some of these images show the thumbnails that lead up to the final pieces.

Working Hard

Right I haven't been post enough on this blog because I've been frantically working. The amount of new things I have learnt on the course is pretty crazy though and I have a backlog of work to upload so over the next two weeks when I get a free second I will be uploading some of the work I have been doing over the last 2 months.

  Next time I think I will scan them.

Computer and Games History Part 1: The dawn of a new age

Most people think that computers are a very new thing that came into existence at the end of the 20th century. So did I. That was until recently because in an early morning lecture as I fought with my body which was demanding for more sleep I heard something I thought was pretty awesome. Entirely mechanical computers have existed since the 1800's, these machines used punch cards similar to the type used in early electrical computers. The Difference engine is the first one and was designed by a mathematician named Charles Babbage, this was just a calculator and sadly was never built which is a shame especially as it turns out it would have worked because some museums have ones made following the designs.

Upon further inspection of Charles Babbage's story is that he was a product of the industrial revolution and like many key figures in that time strived to improve the way work was done. Making systems less prone to error or have increased efficiency is part of this time period. The problem that lead to the difference engine was that of the fact that previously the only way to do a calculation was that you had to do it yourself. Things like the Abacus did help but for the complicated calculations needed for scientific research and navigation meant that many mistakes could be made.

If you want to find out ore about Babbage this article is quite nice:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/object_feb96.html?c=y&page=2

Babbage sought to remove this problem and make things better. This attitude of improvement is the story of computing as all the time computers are getting faster, smaller and sleeker. with more possible programs. This changes many of things in our lives by allowing new medical systems or scientific advancements that lead to faster cars, new cheaper ways of making pretty much everything we have and then allowing us to create new inventions.

Anyway lets stick to the development of computers...

Mechanical computers were built after Babbage's death. The next major steps in computing were made in the run-up to and during the second world war as electro-mechanical and electric computers were used to crack codes or perform calculations for logistics. The Colossus was one such machine made by the allies to break coded messages sent by the axis.

After the war computers were being used more and more by businesses and governments to do many different tasks.Companies like IBM made it that computers were a part of the system. The next major change was that of computers being made smaller. As technology improved and more complex machines could be made using cheaper materials the size of the machines decreased but they still increased in power. Many computer companies started form creating personalized computers for the new expanding market that moved computers from the workplace to the home. The ZX Spectrum is a good example of one of these new computers for the home.

This ends our first part of this subject. This brief timeline of how computers changed from mechanical to electric and then from large to small sets up the way modern computers are made. next section will be focused more on computers and the games consoles of the 80's and 90's.

References:

http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/HistoryPt3.htm
By John Koplin 2002

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/object_feb96.html?c=y&page=1
By Edward Parks 1996

Images:

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/
 Doran Swade 2005

http://www.colossus-computer.com/images/030109-49.jpg

http://zxspectrum48.i-demo.pl/hardpics_pliki/sinclair_zx-spectrum_3-4_hr.jpg

The Beginning

My name is Max Bostock and I was born on July 20th 1995. I grew up in the countryside of Worcestershire near the Cotswolds. It's a very scenic area with plenty of trees, large fields, hills and streams, all the things the countryside is known for really. This did provide a wonderful place in where I could draw and paint which for me was just fine. I would draw and paint, I always enjoyed it but I never saw it as something I could do concerning myself with other plans for the future but never settling on any specific goal. I just wanted to have fun as you do.

My first experience of video games was hearing, shortly followed by watching, Tetris being played on the Gameboy. From then on if I was visiting a friend who had video games I could play I would pounce at the opportunity because it was such fun. Games like Pokemon, Jak and Daxter and Tony Hawks always make me smile when I think about them. My fascination with games has not stopped yet and it has shown no signs of stopping so far.

Seeing as I enjoyed art at home I figured that I would choose it for my GCSE's. During this time I learned very little about art itself but I did learn that it was something I actually wanted to do. I didn't enjoy the projects set throughout the course but I did enjoy drawing and painting. I tried to capture the world around me. At the end of GCSE's I jumped straight into A-levels with a passion for art but certainly not for the course, which seemed to do its best to stop my enjoyment with projects that had vague titles like "colours of music".

It was at this period when I looked at my art and asked myself how I was going to use it. Where should I take it? What should I make? Why should I do this? The last question was one I asked myself many times. One day it hit me on the head. The reason I like art is because I enjoy it. The same reason I go to galleries and look at art. It was also the reason I enjoyed games. These worlds are made out the art of the team behind it. That was when I knew that Game art was for me.

I found this course quickly and knew it fitted the bill for what I wanted to and after the open day knew it was a no-nonsense course which is what I needed after A-levels but also it's what I need if I'm going to succeed. I'm not sure if this made any sense to you I hope it gave you a brief background of who I am. This blog has been made because I'm going to show you my journey through this course. What I learn will be posted here along with some of my work.