Creative Development Week06: Flash Game Designs

I came across some new way of creating a game with the Stencyl software in which you are able to produce games in the most simplest of processes by having tools available as simple as can be to put together a game, however this software only allows you to produce a flash game but nonetheless this is a software which could be used as prototyping a whole game to fully think through the levels and other areas of the game which are needed and not needed. The Stencyl software really stood out to me because this is a piece of software which i could really use as a concept artist to really have my work immersive and interactive at it's simplest point to which i can then publish to IOS or Androids and even web based platforms to promote my work to the Stencyl website and also the fact that it is free and simple, makes it easily accessible to pick up and produce.

Found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9658183.stm

Creative Development Week05: Uncharted Insight

Whilst looking through my Twitter feed i came across some Uncharted news which i found out was from the Autodesk Twitter account which had an article about Naughty Dog's use of Autodesk products in Uncharted 3 and it was a really good insight into a really big company in Naughty Dog's use of softwares which are the same products which i have been using for the past three years so knowing that i am using current software which is being used by a big named company whilst they produce one the greatest games and beautiful games with the Uncharted series it really motivates me to want produce work to that caliber. The softwares that are currently being used by Naughty Dog from Autodesk are Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Mudbox and with Maya really being the main of the three products that i have spent alot of time within it was really intereseting to see the work flow between each software and how they don't rely within one software and also on how some of the artists within Naughty Dog were able to use Autodesk software to produce the simplest of assets and even something like the Desert which i had thought was done using particles but i found that the level had actually been modelled but what had lead me to believe the Desert was done using particles was because of the whole footprints being madde when you see it in game, so when i found this out i was impressed on how simple they had produced the assets and level.

Found at: http://area.autodesk.com/inhouse/bts/uncharted_3_with_naughty_dog

Creative Development Week04: BAF

Hand Circus Notes

We went to BAF this week and the presentations that were mentioned to be shown there weren't any of which i was interested in besides the Unity one which turned out to be a let down as rather than looking at techniques and using certain tools to produce a level or objective, what was shown was the next Unity update of which stuff like the water was shown but nothing really of too much importance and was more like a showreel of the product. However this had been my first BAF appearance as previously i had problems with coming to BAF, this year on the other hand i was excited for at the Unity presentation and was let down by that but there was another few interesting presentations of which two games companies spoke about producing games for IOS and Android as well as psn and xbla platforms of which their companies revolved around few numbers of employees at one or two employees. These presentations were interesting to me as they spoke about gaining experience within a company before branching out on their own which allowed them to produce independant products and they spoke about their way of having a small based company with one of the presenters being Hand Circus of which has produced the IOS platform game Okabu.

Image Metrics Notes

Image Metrics one of the presentations at BAF which i found the most interesting of all were showing the use of a software which is available for free and the software was part of animating the face of a 3D model to produce a much realistic presentation of a cutscene when seeing a close up the face and of an area which is broken down into three parts from eyes, brows and mouth, Jay Grenier mentioned that in getting the eyes wrong the gamer would lose interest and so eye contact is key.



Here is a link to the article: http://nationalmediamuseum.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/jay-grenier-image-metrics-faceware.html



Also here is the video showreel of the work that Image Metrics has produced from films, to games and recognisable products that have used the faceware sotware:

Creative Development Week03:Online Presence

One of the main aspects of promotion within the current market is an online presence and using upto date social networks is the trend for self promotion from social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, own website and etc. Along with social presence the artist needs to have a logo, name, a brand in which they can be exposed under and for myself i have chosen to go with Iffy Inc. as it is not a derogatory name or a name which will offend but is also catchy and easy to remember.

In preparation for my leave of college i have set up  a few areas for online presence and using current social websites to self promote my work, here are some of the areas of my own brand:

Blogger as a website as i have seen many known concept artists having a blogger and a website so i decided to carry on with a blog as a back up for a website at http://iffyinc.blogspot.com/

Youtube is another form of online presence in which i am allowing my 3D models to be viewed in a turnaround or animated at http://www.youtube.com/user/IffyInc

Twitter is another area of social presence, allowing users to post something which is short and quick to read and here is mine at http://twitter.com/#!/IffyInc

Facebook is commonly used throughout global brands and i have done the same at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iffy-Inc/176279865812534

Allowing myself to create an online presence provides more exposure to my brand and work and with many of the social websites being used regularly each website is now being available through each other as well as through various technology forms and carrying on the exposure through mass mediums.