Kung Fu Slime

Fountain update

2010-07-09T03:34:00.001-07:00

2010-07-07T03:53:00.000-07:00

Stuff to save for later

2010-01-12T04:21:00.000-08:00

Dan posted up some favourite artists and they are worth keeping. So i thought I would store them on here :)

http://www.sa74n-design.de/
http://adambromell.com/
http://www.philipk.net/
http://simonbarsky.com/blog/
http://www.gausswerks.com/
http://www.brameulaers.com/

Things to work on over Christmas

2009-12-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

Modelling and texturing very different objects very quickly. Day projects/2 days projects. Think about all the different materials.

Finish the rooftop and trash projects using all of Jolyon's advice.

Final Major Project Assets.

New Rules

2009-12-14T09:02:00.001-08:00

3 new rules from now on.

Always have a Biped in the scene or an object of equal size to scale things to.

Always have plenty of reference open to look at all the all the different materials.

Always think about functionality and how it fits into the scene! Don't settle for putting something in simply because it looks good. Equally, do not exclude sections that are important for how it works.

Brain Rewired!

2009-12-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Today we were visited by a couple of guys from Blitz and they completely changed my view of how to work. Jolyon completely tore down my rooftop project and made me realise how incorrect everything about it was. My scale was completely incorrect and many of the objects have very little functionality.

Simply by putting a biped into the scene he pointed out many things that were incorrect. It was immediately obvious to me and I felt quite foolish for not noticing it before. He made sure I realised the importance of paintovers as well to reassess what feels wrong about the scene.

The other guy Simon was really nice but equally critical about my work. Looking at my Pans Labyrinth project he pointed out many things that didnt feel right. He highlighted the importance of REFERENCE REFERENCE REFERENCE for all the materials and how the objects affect their environments. For example he showed me how trees drain the life out of everything around them on the ground and used this as a way of showing me that I wasn't looking at reference properly in terms of functionality.

Simon recommended that I collect lots of materials or objects and just try to make them quickly. I think I will make a start to that either during or after christmas.

Random Modelling... :S

2009-12-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

Just making some shapes this weekend. Gonna make an architechtural piece for my portfolio and had a go at this. Will have to ask heather about a couple of things though so i can texture it effectively. Its a model from reference, a gate into somebodys property i believe! Haha ricchhhhhh!

Improvement?

2009-12-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

improvement?

Finished Pans Labyrinth project in UDK

2009-11-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

I found UDK pretty difficult to get to grips with in some places, however I have managed to do all the UDK stuff over 2 days :) massive learning curve! Really fun! Puts me in a slightly better place for my FMP.

Pans Labyrinth in Unreal

2009-11-25T09:47:00.000-08:00

UDK is pretty :) Just have to apply the blend map to the terrain and its done! Crits Welcome! :D prettyyyyyyy

Unreal Developers Kit

2009-11-24T05:16:00.000-08:00

After about half an hour of confusion.. i realised that the UDK is amazing.. and I want it at uni so that I can do all of my environment work on it! I love it! :D I put this model into it to see how it work etc and I am especially impressed with the lighting. It makes my model look even better than I could have hoped and Im sure with some tweaks to the materials it could look even better!

Now to go and bug Tim about getting it up on the uni machines! :D

more and more of the environmentals come together

2009-11-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

default max lighting WIP. I hope to put this into unreal, the fog will add so much more depth to it and the lighting is so much better than the max lighting.

WIP

2009-11-21T09:38:00.001-08:00

Pan's Labyrinth Environment WIP

2009-11-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

this one is a fun one :) plan to put it in unreal once it is finished

Playing with unreal

2009-11-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

I learnt alot today from Dave about how to use the unreal editor. Unfortunately I had many problems with importing my rooftop into it. I think that the main problem was that I had 8 ID channels and the editor could not recognise it. I may still be able to do it though... it will just take a bit of thought... hmm.

Good news is I have started a personal project and I am enjoying it alot :). Also all the experience I gained today will help me to plan and sort out my Final Major Project and gives me a very powerful tool to display my work in.

2009-11-15T16:53:00.000-08:00

next step... complete dirt textures on 256 maps and drop into unreal tournament. Make an air con unit to replicate around the scene also

Textures nearly Finihsed

2009-11-13T08:52:00.001-08:00

Rooftop Project

2009-11-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

Quite a way through now. I decided not to do the sculpture project after some advice at the careers fair. I am trying to break up the tiling textures with lighting and some other assets that I will add once I have finished the main building.

I will add a couple of background buildings in later on and possibly put it all into unreal to make it look real pretty :).

Sculpture Project

2009-10-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Rubbishhhh

2009-10-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

Just need to make my display sheet now! :) 495 Tris on the actual rubbish and a 1024/1024 Diffuse Map only. The environment was a seperate texture and model. Lit with 3 Omni Lights.

Trash WIP

2009-10-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Final Major Project Research - Ali

2009-10-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

I have been disecting the film Ali to gain insight into a 1960's boxing gym and the whole feel of boxing at the time. I have made four mood boards from this film that I can use to create asset lists, gain greater insight into layout, and to use as reference when trying to duplicate the style and textures.

I have made several different sheets. One to show all of the aspects of the training gym, one to show basic character clothing and a couple of others to elaborate on those.

Unfortunately... blogger wont let me upload... POOO... this post will be updated!

Sculpt Practice

2009-10-19T16:14:00.001-07:00

More poop

2009-10-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

Cameron and I are going to have a little project competition together modelling heroes and villains so I had a little practice tonight at creating my base mesh to start the sculpting on. We are just going to do a couple of hours each day and enjoy ourselves. We think it could be a really good way to improve and show what we can do also.

Currently I am working on the Trash project for uni. I have finished unwrapping my model and I am now texturing mostly with photo textures in order to create a photo realistic scene. This will only take a couple more days. Unfortunately i stupidly saved it as a 2010 file and I have an older version so i have nothing to show at this stage! booo....

My final major project plans are slowly starting to come together. At the moment I am just watching a few films and looking up source material for research to gather the correct textures, themes etc. I am starting to get a better idea of how I want to do it but it is still a little foggy in my mind. I have been advised to go to visit a ware house first hand in order to see what they are like. At this stage I am not really sure where to go. Mike gave me the idea of visiting the pumping station again as most of the textures would be similar and also it is a victorian building as far as I remember, which is what I need.

Finished Treasure Chest

2009-10-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

Chest Update

2009-10-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

Squooglee Tentacles

2009-10-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Started my first project for the academic year on thursday and I am happy with my progress so far. I have Finished my low poly and have got a good way through making my high poly. The project is to recreate a treasure chest concept that we have been given by Blitz. It will be finished by the end of this week God willing! :)

2009-10-07T08:08:00.001-07:00

8338 tris
1024/1024 Diffuse, Spec and Normals
Reflection map

Just have to make the grills and it is complete! :)

Mini High Poly WIP

2009-09-30T11:46:00.001-07:00

Will work on the wheels and small details tommorow and then I will move to optimising and unwrapping the low poly. I just hope it will bake ok in the end!... if not I may just make a diffuse and specular and forget the normals as most of the details are actually already contained in geometry.

Today, after looking at some more examples of vehicle models I have realised a few things that I would do differently next time. I would use booleon more often to get more precise sections of detail. This time I modelled it by pushing and pulling vertices and it was inefficient and inaccurate. However, so far I am pleased with the results so far.

Car base finished

2009-09-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

Will now move on to creating a low and high poly from this. Considering this model is still below 10,000 tris it should be alright with only a few adjustments to make it slightly more efficient. I will make the interior also but may not spend too much time on it as I want to get this finished before the end of the week.

2009-09-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

Main shape sorted... now for the details...

Progress

2009-09-24T10:24:00.001-07:00

There is alot of geometry in there that can be removed later on but i want to keep it there for the time being. Going pretty well so far I think. Will definately try and finish modelling this base model by Saturday.

Mini Beginnings

2009-09-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

2 days casual work so far. just hitting 3000 tris atm. This model will be used both to create the higher poly and it will be optimised to create the lower. This workflow seems to work quite well for me. For my low poly I am aiming to finish in under 10,000 tris just like Heather told us.

Garden Completed

2009-09-21T08:07:00.001-07:00

Garden Progress

2009-09-21T06:47:00.001-07:00

All that is left to do is to hide the background with some bushes and texture the trowel :) Will do that now

Portfolio stuff

2009-09-09T15:01:00.001-07:00

Garden environment. A section of my Mum and Dad's back garden and a corner scene. Started this tonight and I will have finished the modelling stage by tommorow.

Back from South Africa... back to work!

2009-07-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Had two amazing weeks in South Africa and felt it really changed my outlook on life in so many ways (also had such an adventure). While I was out there I was working for a charity called Soul Action, a combined effort between Tearfund and Soul Survivor. More than anything I was so blessed by the people I met and their amazing ability to love one another. Although this sounds like your standard post-Africa conclusion I am being sincere, it genuinely has made me think differently since I have been back home and I think it will probably affect the rest of my life. I will write more about it when I feel I have actually taken in everything I did out there.

Now I'm back I am finishing up the Jack the Ripper so that I can do some portfolio work once it is finished. Im just rushing through this now but I intend for it to be done well enough.

Started to sculpt the body today, also finishing touches to the head (I am fairly happy with where it is now). I know I could do much better next time and I have learnt so much from doing this project but now I am realising that I really don't enjoy character modelling but that I would probably be more at home making everyday objects as assetts. This may change later but right now I am just not enjoying it that much.

Baked Head mmmmmmmmmmmmm

2009-06-30T12:20:00.001-07:00

I baked out the normals and ambient occlusion for Jack the Ripper and thanks to all the practice I have been doing I got no noticeable seams!!! WOOO :D

I am really happy with this and it has given me a real boost in my confidence. I am actually on my way to making something the way that I want it to look rather than being hindered by technical difficulties.

I am quite happy with the mesh as well, I realise there may still be a few things that I could improve (suggestions welcome for future improvement).

Total of 1480 tris including the eyes using a 1024 texture for both the normals and ambient occlusion. Some space has been saved for the hands... this may change the overall resolution slightly later... but it will not be much work to do this and I don't think it will be drastic enough to change the quality of the model.

Simon is a happy modeller!

Hand Sculpt

2009-06-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Working on the hand sculpt for Jack the Ripper (and because it's fun). Only focused on major forms so that I didn't mess up too much today. I have done quite a lot of adjusting to the low poly also in order that the proportions look more like they are supposed to.

Head sculpt to develop character

2009-06-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

I decided to sculpt the head today after tweaking and fixing for a long time. I realised that the head was finished so I thought i would sculpt it to help move me along and have a bit of fun. Low poly is nearly complete also, just trying to figure out a few bits here and there before moving on to UVing and texturing.

I will tweak this a bit more once i have done some more on the low poly. I dont want to get too carried away with details just yet.

The best powercut ever!!

2009-06-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago I was happily sitting on my laptop as usual watching a few programs on BBCi and checking my facebook like I always do when suddenly everything electrical in the house died. It took me a few moments to realise that we had experienced a powercut. Slightly confused I went to chat to my parents who by this point were talking to the neighbours out of the window about the situation laughing and joking.

Now this wouldn't seem like such an unusual situation, this I can understand. However, it made me so aware of the amount of social ability we lose due to technology. I could have been spending time with my parents or even friends but I had chosen to sit on my computer for a couple of hours. What shocked me even more was that we don't talk to most of our neighbours and yet the entire street seemed united in friendly conversation which seemed to be so against the way things usually are.

I didn't know what to do once the electricity was off... that is what freaked me out the most. I had no idea how to entertain myself without electricity beyond playing a bit of guitar. I found myself sitting in the garden listening to the trees blowing in the wind, something I had never really sat and appreciated before. It was so quiet! How often in life do we let absolute silence happen? It has made me realise how important it is for us. I felt rested and like I had done something that my body really needed to relax rather than just sitting in front of a series of images hoping for the odd laugh.

Not only that but I went to bed early because my body actually could tell what time it was, bed time! Will somebody remind me why we rely on technology so much? Try not turning on anything electrical one night and doing something else, it changes everything. Whether or not you enjoy the experience, it will definately make you think.

Im gonna finish this one!

2009-06-24T09:44:00.001-07:00

Having practiced several things for months, I have not actually reached the end of a project (boo). So after chatting to several people I have realised that I have to actually get something completed rather than learning random skills from all over the place. Thanks for the push guys :)

So I am going to finish my Jack the Ripper like I said I would ages ago. I feel I have really let myself down recently. I have learnt so much about the Unreal Editor, Zbrush and baking textures but I havent channelled this into a project.

I will at least complete this character and then I will move on to the environment if I feel I can complete it with the time given.

Shin Pads

2009-06-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

Second asset has been completed to a satisfactory standard. I am actually pretty happy with these. I am learning alot from simply practicing making real life objects. They are 287 Tris each with 512/512 Normal, Colour and Specular.

When I made the straps I simply made the high poly in max. I found it was less fiddly for the type of object that it is and looked less "gooey". I am trying to fight the fact that I keep making bakes that look slightly dodgy around the edges, maybe modelling some things in max will help. Or it may just be a matter of being more careful with my zbrush models.

I had a couple of problems with this model.. I have found that if I render it the straps seem to glow. Any ideas? I was thinking it may be because they are flat planes. These pictures are from viewport.

I learnt alot from watching Scott Eaton sculpting. He uses a very low intensity and its very careful. I have always been one of these people that makes something basically and quickly and then develops it. I am now learning that in order to make a model more effectively I may have to be more careful along the way without worrying too much about the details. Turning down the intensity of my brush should help me do this.

Update

2009-05-26T12:53:00.001-07:00

Apparently my normals were inverted. Heres the update.

2009-05-26T04:44:00.000-07:00

Ive made a start to my Final Major in the most fun way I could think possible. I decided to make some of the boxing gloves that are going to be dotted around the gym. It is a basic start and it has taken me maybe 2 days to complete to this level.

There are a couple of seams that i am not too happy with but they aren't very noticable. I will improve these at a later date if I get the chance and I think it is necessary Individually each glove is 610 Tris and I have used a 512/512 colour, specular and normal.

When I do place them around the level I intend to change the texture a couple of times to add variation. When it comes to making a character to go in the environment I can also use this model as an extra prop with different textures.

Now the next thing I am going to make is some boxing pads or some shin guards. I am actually loving this! :D

Getting a real headache...

2009-05-17T13:21:00.001-07:00

Well, I'll be honest. I'm pretty much struggling in everyway in my life atm... I'm finding it difficult to get work done, I am lacking in motivation. I am still feeling the aftermath of being so ill both emotionally and physically and it is affecting alot of the ways in which I am reacting to people, my faith, my work and my ability to relax properly.

I decided to drop the ruins summer project that I was doing mostly because I didn't have the necessery reference in order to complete it well. I have decided to change the project to the Jack the Ripper environment and character. This seemed to make alot more sense because of all the victorian buildings around leicester that I can simply replicate.

Surprisingly I have learnt alot these last few weeks but I really don't feel productive. I have learnt how to retopologise models in zbrush, how to extract areas of mesh and a great deal about work flow but yet I still feel realy down about where I am going with the projects. If I'm honest I find all of this technical computer stuff really difficult, especially when it comes to baking normal maps etc. I really don't feel I have the understanding for it and no matter how many times I try to get it right it just doesn't seem to get anywhere! Often I will look around and see my course mates making some amazing stuff and I just seem to be hitting brick walls on every turn. Although I know I shouldn't measure myself next to them but at the moment I just want to be able to keep up.

I have been trying to get better at small things at a time. My learning has been a bit all over the place but it reassures me being able to do new things.

I made this head from a simple base mesh that I made in max. I then learnt how to retopologise it and did it the best way I knew how. Del pointed me in the right direction of some more info so I'm very grateful.

I am going to try and get at least 3 buildings completely textured by the end of this coming week to give me an objective. I really want to get some portfolio work together soon so that I can feel positive about my work again.

On the up side, I have decided what I am going to do for my final major project and I have put it past the teachers to see what they think and they have given me the go ahead. That is what I really want to start more than anything... maybe there is a way for me to start that project. Many thanks to Debbie for helping me to come up with the idea.

Im back baby!

2009-05-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Right... now that I am nicely relaxed after easter and I feel like I am on the mend (stupid mumps... and tonsilitus.. and flu...) I can actually get down to some serious work.

My easter was amazing, I went to Paris and got to see some great art. I went to the Rodin museum which really excited me. I was really impressed by his loose yet anatomically correct style. Many of the study sculptures were very useful for developing my understanding of the human anatomy aswell as my skill in zbrush as a digital sculptor.

I also got to go to the Musee d'Orsay which was really exciting. My favourite paintings were the impressionists, they were so incredible with colour and putting real emotion into their paintings! In particular I was glad to see Monet's studies of light in different times of day.

At the moment my work is a bit all over the place but I am learning rapidly. I am currently trying out the ruins project for Uni aswell as learning a bit of Unreal. Within this project I have learnt alot about making believable plants and also about workflow. I intend to finish it soon, if only at a basic level.

As a part of the ruins project I am creating a character. At this stage I am simply trying to make a completely quaded mesh that I can use in zbrush. I had one previous attempt at this but it wasn't as successful as I had hoped. This new one is currently completely quaded and I have great hopes for it. I may even enter Dominance War for the last week and see what I can make in that time.

Queens building project

2009-03-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

We have now come to the end of our Queens building project and we are very happy with the results that we achieved considering that it was our fist time making a level. Our team has been well organised and friendly throughout which we are all extremely grateful for. Obviously there are many things that we could improve on next time and with the current composition but we are very pleased with the outcome none-the-less.

2009-03-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

Using the shapes found in the mood board I had created, I have begun to design a boat. I decided to make it a modern design and have tried to make it a believable and practical shape.

I am currently making a basic 3D model of it using 3dsmax so that I can understand the shape in 3D much better.

Saving Private Ryan

2009-03-06T04:47:00.000-08:00

The film this week was Saving Private Ryan. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film was highly influenced by the photography of Robert Capa, a war time photojournalist.

Robert Capa was a extremely daring photographer whos pictures of the D'Day landings are incredibly atmospheric.

Saving Private Ryan was a film that tried to capture the same feel of the D'Day landings: The gritty air and the movement in particular echoed Robert Capa's photography with the entire first scene being filmed with hand-held cameras. Sections of the film were also put through a monochromatic bleaching process which made it feel much colder and "other worldly".

The sound really adds to the feeling of depth within the film. While I was watching it I noticed that the camera would show you something visually such as rain falling in a puddle followed by a soldier marching through it: at the same time the sound would be very clear and distinctive and it really helped you feel all the other senses that a film can not usually give you such as the feel of the mud and the temperature of the air.

The way in which the captain has his hearing affected by the explosions around him opens him up to truely assess the situation and what horrible things are going on around him. By removing the sound, the visual horrors that are in front of him are exaggerated.

There were many close ups of seemingly unimportant things but it really helped you to get dragged into the world that the film presented you with. It is a technique I have noticed in many films but I feel that it was expertly done in Saving Private Ryan.

This technique was greatly improved by the ways in which shots were given a more 3D feel. I noticed that the air always seems to be filled with either smoke, or soil, or debris from explosions. This gave your eyes a clear indication of how far objects were away.

I have found that this is also evident in some games. When used effectively it produces a similar effect to the one I mentioned earlier, you get a greater feel for how the environment smells, tastes, and feels. A good example of this is Assasins Creed.

There was another picture that stood out to me in particular from the whole film. Sillouetted figures walk through the night in front of what appears to be like a storm but is in fact distant explosions.

Sillouettes can be very powerful things, I have seen that they are often used to symbolise people that you should be afraid of. Sometimes they can be used to represent a group of people whos character can be determined without seeing their faces. It is clear in the above shot that these people are soldiers simply by the formation that they walk in.

Indirectly I dislike the bleached out effect that the visual directors of this film decided to adopt. Mostly because it has influenced many games to look drab and has encouraged them to use way too many tersiary colours.

I was surprised at how emotional Saving Private Ryan was because I had not seen it in such a long time. This was heightened by the way in which you learn more about each of the soldiers inbetween battles. Each and every one of them tells the others very personal things about themselves, reinforcing the bonds of brotherhood at war ( a central theme to the film).

I was very impressed that the characters are not made out to be invincible macho men, but that they are shown as quite the opposite. As grown men who cry out to their Mamas when they are wounded and cry when they are scared. Their fragility greatly improves their attractiveness as human beings rather than mythical creations. The tendency with film is to glorify violence and revenge rather than show how ugly it truely is. The alpha male of the film is Tom Hanks' character who despite being a leader has his weaknesses. He is simply a school teacher who has become a soldier. He is shown to have a shakey hand which could represent a greater weakness.

I don't think that games could take the same approach successfully. I realised this when playing COD World at War recently. The horrific gore just becomes entertaining in a sick way and doesnt discourage you from glorifying it but instead desensitizes you to it. I think that it is a real shame that people don't even bat an eyelid when somebody is shot in a film anymore. Death should never be taken as a casual thing, or even as a form of entertainment, staged or real.

This has ended up being a very long blog. Mostly because I really love this film. There is so much more I could say along the themes of religion in this film and religious symbolism, or further artistic choices that were made. Such as the sea running red, or the reference to living life well. I won't go any further however... I feel i may be time for bed. I must be getting old...

doodling again

2009-03-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

argh... it looks like me.... freaky

Mood Board

2009-03-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

Heres my mood board for the word culture. I decided to look at the culture of Tibet. I found it really interesting the array of colours and fabrics. The armour is especially decorative.

FREAKING TURTLES

2009-02-25T17:31:00.000-08:00

note to self.. in order to bake normal maps.. make sure model is air tight!!!

TURTLES!!!!!!!!!!!

Baking High to Low

2009-02-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

At 4 last night I decided to learn how to bake high to low poly meshes. Have had a little success, will now make the model properly in order to do this for real :)

My first step to dominance war

2009-02-21T05:28:00.000-08:00

I have entered the minicomp for dominance war which is to create a general using a premade bass mesh. I have quickly whipped up this concept in about an hour in zbrush and I am really happy with it so far. I am making a roman general. I will have to finish all of the extra accessories so I can uv them before I resculpt this. Even if I dont finish it gives me an excuse to practice this stuff.

Discovering zbrush... and whether i could pull off having a beard!!! ...as you do..

2009-02-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

Have done a tonne of tutorials today on zbrush to get myself ready for if I want to do Dominance War and stuff :). Had amess around with a sphere trying to make a head and came out with this. I intended to mirror it... but then I messed it up by not having it aligned properly... Oh well! Learnt something there!!

Also for fun decided to give my self portrait a beard! Why not! Better than growing one and finding it doesnt suit me!! haha. Turns out it makes me look like George Lucas... and nobody wants that! haha.

I have enjoyed this all a bit too much and have probably been doing it for about 4 hours. I hadn't used zbrush before today and had only made physical sculptures in sculpey. I was loving the fact that zbrush has a sculpey shader! Made me feel right at home! Great stuff.

Bed Time!

sketchy sketch sketch

2009-02-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

A quick drawing from a photo with the aim of colouring it correctly without grabbing the colours using photoshop. Then I will move on to drawing the same person from life and painting them with traditional materials and possibly photoshop.

Our adventure to London town!

2009-02-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, myself and a certain young lady made our way to London to have a look at some galleries and see some sights together. We went to a couple of galleries with the aim that I would be able to come home and feel inspired and have an artist I could study and produce a series of paintings. First we went to the Tate Modern as I remembered that the last time I had been that they had a series of impressionist paintings. However this time there weren't any there that I could find. I did find some interesting paintings there.

Some of Monet's water lilies were there and I found them to be quite incredible. Although it was one of the smaller copies, I was struck by the amount of different colours that there were on the canvas to just represent the water. This particular painting was after 1918 and it appeared quite abstract but what it taught me about colour was important. The colours in the painting all seemed exaggerated to an extreme, I remember my tutor told me this could have been due to cataracts in his eyes. Even though it may not have been deliberate that he painted it like this but it helped me realise that colour is a matter of perception. There are colours where you would not expect them. When painting pictures from now on I will try and paint what I see as the colours, not what I think they SHOULD be.

Another painting I saw in the Tate Modern was a painting of Matisse by Andre Derain from 1905. It stood out to be because of the simple use of thick paint to produce areas of light and dark on the portrait. Also the shadow areas of the face were made with blues to suggest an diffused light. There is one area of red which really helps the whole face to seem more fleshy. I think I just found it facinating that this painting could be so simple but give you such a feeling of form and shape. I think that again, although the colours are exaggerated they help to teach me about what kind of colours I should place onto a portrait.

A concept I had not come across was used in one of the paintings by Gunter Brus. Although I did not intially like it because it was so abstract I thought that the idea of it was exciting. It was an "action painting" which was not so much about the aesthetic of he work but more about how it showed the movement of the artist. The strokes were frenetic and excited. When I started looking at it in this way it became much more enjoyable to look at, every smudge and scratch of paint showed how the artist had moved. I guess that is something similar to the way in which Jackson Pollock would work and it has a similar appeal. I think that photoshop can never really show how the artist has felt when painting it in the same way that physical materials can, however the production time is so much shorter.

Once we had been around the Tate Modern I had become far too annoyed at the stupid paintings (something I never used to do.... hmmm) we moved on to the national gallery hoping to see some Turner paintings, my favourite painter. We had no luck in finding anything besides religious paintings and I became quite frustrated... but I was extremely impressed by the understanding of anatomy that went into these pictures. I found that alot of the paintings really tried to hide how they had been painted, something that I really stuggled with because I love being able to see expression and brush strokes.

We did then try to go to the Tate Britain but by this point they had just closed, we were very dissapointed. I would have really liked to have found something that was really inspiring. I don't think that the day was unsuccessful though, I had a really great day with my girlfriend and we did get to see some great artwork. There are so many memories from that day which I want to keep forever!

Just before we came home I did a couple of sketches of my girlfriend that I plan to develop later. I will probably paint a portrait of her so that I can get a bit of practice.

Today I have done a couple of painting samples of the flowers I have growing in my room trying to learn from what I saw. I would really like to study Freud a bit more. I love the way he manipulates paint, even though alot of his paintings are more than slightly vulgar, I believe I can learn alot from them. I think I will try to see how he paints light and shadow as well as colour and produce a couple of paintings of friends from this.

L.A. Confidential

2009-02-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

Continuing our film studies in lectures, we have been watching several films that come under the category of film noir. LA Confidential is a confusing, yet exciting journey through 1950's Hollywood and the corruption, vanity and the nature of man. The reason that I found it confusing was that the story would suggest that the film should be presented in a certain way due to the fact that it quite clearly shows the common features of a film noir: a dangerous yet seductive woman, a twisted moral code and what is in this case, a detective story. Instead of resorting to making an immitation of a 1950's film, the producers of this film have made a 90's film with 50's roots. I found this to be very interesting throughout the film as it made you feel like you were watching something very familiar with an original twist.

After watching the film, I have found that I keep thinking about each of the characters and finding that I really related to a couple of them in very strong ways. The story surrounds Los Angeles policemen that are caught up in all kinds of corruption, sexually, politically and in terms of drug abuse. Counter balancing this is the seemingly pure concience of an aspiring detective Edmund Exley who lives his life trying to succeed where his father failed. Wendell "Bud" White is a violent and fiery cop that is often used as the muscle for tough jobs. The story arc between these two cross several times throughout the film and with a third cop, Jack Vincennes, who is only truely concerned with his personal wealth and fame.

I think that I related mostly to the experience of Exley as he tried his very hardest to be pure and noble in his job. He constantly puts his reputation on the line in order to do the right thing and stands by what he beleives in for a very long time but it clearly puts a strain on him. I really felt a connection with him as I have faced similar experiences of being outcast because of what I do and what I beleive in, especially when it comes to my relationship with God and how I respond to it.

Exley's fear of doing the things wrong that his father did is something that I have seen in both my own Dad and myself aswell. I think many sons fear to inherit the darker characteristics of their fathers and they were most likely subject to them. I did also find Bud to be a very interesting character that I could empathise with. He had a real anger towards woman-beaters due to a horrific event when he was a child and it had clearly changed the core of who he was. I could see how that could happen and I could start to understand who he was based on this. Jack is a policemen who has completely lost sight of why he became a policemen in the first place, towards the end of the film there is a real feel of salvation when he starts to collaborate with Exley. Exley seems to act as a catalist for the whole station to realise why they became policemen in the first place. They do the best job they can and in a just way.

For me the most facinating thing about the film was that both Exley and Bud both end up becoming exactly what they set out not to. Exley shoots a man in the back, something that he said his Father did: He used this as an example of the kind of actions he wanted to completely avoid but yet he gets dragged into doing it. Bud, as mentioned earlier, had set out to stop people who abuse women, yet in his anger he strikes his lover. Maybe this is a comment on the corruption of man or maybe it is simply a clever way to make the characters more believable.

I really enjoyed L.A. Confidential, it was exciting and gripping in all the right ways. Do watch it if you havent before! Yes thats right! Even if you do despise Russel Crowe!

Messing around

2009-02-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

Well this week I have been unsure what to do at home so having a bit of a mess about i've made the PG Tips monkey. Mostly because I have a toy of him on my desk and he ROCKS. No where near finished, admire the smiley face! It is at this stage still just a black line haha!

A little more practice

2009-02-06T07:14:00.000-08:00

Did a painting of my friend Dan while we were at uni today just as practice, especially in terms of colour and skin tone.

United 93

2009-02-04T07:52:00.001-08:00

Last week we watched a film that I think could possibly be the most stressful film in history. United 93 is a real-time reconstruction of the events surrounding 9/11 from the perspective of the air traffic controllers, the passengers on one of the planes and surprisingly also the terrorists themselves. The cast is made up of unknown actors and the people that are working that day at air traffic control are the ACTUAL people that were there on the day. They play themselves and say the exact things that they did say at that time. Knowing this as you watch the film makes it even more haunting and tense.

It starts as just an ordinary day at the airport. The air hostesses are getting on the planes and the passengers are having natural conversations about what they are going to do when they arrive at their destination. The dramatic irony is that they don't know what is going to happen to them: Most people watching the film will already know what is going to happen and this creates many opportunities for tension to rise.

One of the things that shocked me about the film was the fact that before 9/11, nobody even suspected that somebody ould hijack a plane in order to use it as a weapon. When the word "hijack" is used, many people laugh and say something like "Hijack, serious? We haven't had one of those in years!". When I was watching this I felt like I could scream out to them to tell them how dangerous this was!

The film is so immersive, probably due to the fact that it runs in real time and because it is rooted in fact. I actually felt really emotional at the moment when the first plane struck the trade center. The last time I had seen that footage I was about 12 and I guess that over the years I had lost the full impact of it. The first time that I saw this film, I felt much like the passengers on the plane. I became so involved that I actually felt the desperation to overcome the terrorists and stop their plan.

One thing that I really admired about the film makers was that they actually took the time to consider how the terrorists would have acted and felt about the whole operation. I think that the way it was portrayed was probably quite accurate as the processes they went through in order to complete their plan, and their motivation was believable. I didn't really question this at any time during the film.

I think that the film was a very good tribute to the events of 9/11. I guess that many people won't see this film because they will think that it is simply a way of making money out of a horrific event: I think that actually it is a shame that it is being viewed like that. I felt very moved and affected both in terms of my emotions and my understanding of the current world situation.

Colour! Learning to see again!

2009-02-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

Ok, so last term I learnt loads about shape and form. This term I intend to learn alot about colour and light. I did a colour-study of a self portrait by Benjamin Sullivan in order to look at what colours to use on the face and what subtle colours are shown around each area of the face. I took alot of time before I started just trying to find the correct colours on the colour pallette in photoshop. I DID NOT colour pick at all OR use any overlay layers once I had finished. I want to stop depending on fancy effects in photoshop and simply learn to see the colours and light correctly.

I did however do this from a photograph which is bad but I intend to take what I have learnt and draw another portrait of a friend from life. I didnt cheat in any way making this picture though. I drew it as if it were in front of me, no tracing or overlaying. Still, it could be better and I will keep trying to improve!

Doing this study followed a really good conversation with my tutor about how we see colour and light. I was struggling making up an environment and getting the feeling right. I wanted a feeling of temperature and moisture that I couldn't quite convey. It looked like it was dull and grey. My tutor took a look at it and then got me to look out of the window at the sky. We saw purples, oranges, pinks and many other colours that at a glance would just be grey. The way in which these colours in the sky affected the environment was very important. Distant buildings that were made of concrete made me immediately assume that they were grey. However, on further inspection, they actually looked pink! This was due to the light of the sky changing the way my eye was seeing it. My brain was filtering this out and just saying it was grey.

This is the painting I produced following this talk. Throughout I was battling my brains natural tendency to simplify colour and materials into catergories. Time to break free and see things the way they really are!!

War of the Worlds (2005)

2009-01-28T02:33:00.000-08:00

War of the Worlds is yet another film to do with aliens that is directed by Steven Spielberg. Even though it is based on the book of the same name by H.G Wells, it has been contemporized and therefore many things are now different about the story. The first thing that differs about the two stories is that in the book, the aliens simply land and start to invade earth: Understandably, Spielberg wanted to do something different, seeing as how the book has had more adaptations than so many other stories. He wanted to have the alien ships already buried under the Earth's surface. The aliens then came in what looked like lightning storms so that they could pilot the Tripods.

Tom Cruise plays a divorced parent with an immature approach to life, Ray. Rachel, his daughter, played by Dakota Fanning (who i swear is a 40 year old woman in a childs body) is a very mature and intelligent child. Obviously this creates an interesting dynamic between the characters. The son, Robbie, is your average rebelious teenager and he simply doesn't understand the situation fully, often desperate to fight the invasion with military force.

The main thing I love about this adaptation is the constant battle of different personalities and beliefs: On their exodus away from the city Ray and his family get their car stolen and their lives put at risk by many desperate people. This all felt very real to me having been in London at new years eve amongst many millions of people. Later into the film, Ray is forced to kill a man who has lost his mind out of fear. This man wanted to attack the tripods with his own strength and a shotgun and Ray has to stop him in order that he and his daughter are not discovered. This creates a very tense atmosphere, especially during a classic scene in which the tripod sends a probe down to try and find survivors.

The art direction is what really excited me about this film. The concept artist for the Tripods was Ryan Church, the same Ryan Chuch that worked on the latest Star Wars films amongst many other things. I really liked his adaptation of the Tripods, they kept enough elements of the ones from the book but were suitably changed to make them more interesting or exciting. He took the approach that the actual machine would have to be terrifying as it was representing the creature within. He also kept hints of the green smoke that hissed from the limbs of the war machines in the book. The head of the machine had something "human-like" about it aswell and the many "glistening tentacles" really statyed loyal to the book whilst giving it a unique twist.

The aliens themselves were changed quite alot. In the book they are simply octopus like blobs that are not capable of much more than glooping around on the floor. The film had them as 3 legged creatures much like a stereotypical alien.

Overall I think it is a very exciting film that brings many new ideas to a tired old story that has been repeated so many times. The unique art style has a consistant feel and the whole presentation maintains a constant feeling of terror and parranoia.

Figuring things out...

2009-01-27T17:16:00.000-08:00

Our group project is going well so far. We have a concept in place and we are now making assets to block out the level so we can compose it however we want. However, in the process, we needed to do a few experiments in order to figure out how to do things. One of those things was: How do ceilings collapse? To solve this problem, one of my team mates went to a building site to see what makes up a ceiling. He discovered that it was made up of several layers of plaster, brick and concrete set in a metal mesh. He then gave me those instructions and I created a 3d visualisation so that we could figure out how to make it in game.

The actual metal mesh can be done using alpha channels and also the plaster can. I think that the finl product will also be more distorted and have much more concrete hanging off of it. However, this has been a tremendous help in figuring out what to do. I have learnt first hand that making a test subject is vital when working in unknown territory.

I have also put together a few tests for the rubble. A very productive day indeed!

People People People!

2009-01-24T09:29:00.001-08:00

Went to town and spent a good couple of hours drawing people as they walked around. I found that I couldn't draw literal representations of people but I found it a really good exercise for drawing something new and different. When a person walked past and I liked an aspect of their character, I tried to freeze the image in my mind and draw what I saw. What I found was that my drawings became quite stylised simply because I was trying to capture character rather than just shape and form. I really enjoyed it and actually I quite like the style of the drawings. I think I may keep them that way and paint each of them up in a more detailed manner. This little dude is the first I have done.

Starting again!

2009-01-21T09:40:00.001-08:00

Ok so we have changed the teams of our group project now. I am no longer a team leader which sucks a little but I have been put with a team that I feel quite confident with now that I have found out their ideas.

We are basically going to make a destroyed lecture theatre. The auditorium will have been destroyed by a missle and we are going to model all of the debri and damage that it will cause. I wasn't too sure about this idea at first but after discussing it with my tutors and the other team members I am quite excited to get going.

My first job is to create a chair, a standard asset that will be repeated throughout the scene. We are not going to texture anything until we have figured out where things are going to go. This way we will also have a consistant style throughout the scene.

Time to get to work!

New Project- Team Environment

2009-01-20T06:16:00.001-08:00

We have just started a new project in teams in which we have to create a university building in a post apocalyptic style. I have been chosen as a team leader which is pretty scary but I will do my best to do a good job. We have started to look at how to block off certain areas of the environment realistically and have discussed what features to have in each area to make it more interesting.

I have assigned each person a few jobs for this week. Basically for the first week people have to create a few concepts and learn how to use the unreal editor so that we can get started on the main shape of the building.

Here are our notes of how the level will be set out. The red shows the blockages and the blue show the areas of interest. It is pretty messy but at this stage this is mainly so we know where we are headed.

I am excited about how we are going to do on this project but I can already tell that it is going to be pretty stressful and that it will be a challenging situation to be in.

A rather good day

2009-01-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

I've had a pretty good day. Today I had the chance to go out for a meal with my course mates and we all managed to just discuss the way we are working and how we could each improve in terms of techniques and helping each other. It was surprising how much it helped just chatting to everyone and deciding how we were all going to solve certain problems. A few of us are going to try and submit some work in order to go to the open day at Blitz Games. I have decided to try to rig up my self portrait so that I can use that for my submission.

Rigging is a real nightmare to me... i really cannot stand it... I simply want my character to stand in a relaxed position and I come across all kinds of problems. None the less I want to learn how to do it properly without things messing up. For now I have half succeeded at making it look relaxed and will just tweak some verts so that it doesn't look incorrect.

Like many other people on my course today I really want to do well. I think I may enter the next dominance war competition in order to improve my skills and get some feedback on the way I work and the techniques that I am using.

A conversation with my friend Dan today also helped me sort my head out a bit. I keep feeling down and stressed out because I can see where I want to be and I can't think of anyway of reaching it. Dan has a really good approach and said to me that I should work on the little skills bit by bit. I am never going to reach that standard that I aspire to without first learning how to. Basically I need to improve my skills purposefully in all areas and try to apply them into the field I eventually want to end up in, but I also need to realise that it is a gradual process.

I am constantly impressed by the ability of so many people on my course and I have realised that many of them simply try things over and over again. That is something that I need to adopt myself. Trying little excercises in a short period of time will help me to get better.

Maturity

2009-01-12T09:28:00.000-08:00

My day today has been quite uneventful and started with the realisation that any time before 9 O’clock simply does not exist, even when I am awake... The sheer levels of grumpiness became a muttering storm of grumbles and childish whining. Today I had to be up early in order to give in my presentation of my work for this term and I can barely remember doing it. At some point one day I am going to have to consider changing my sleeping habits and actually grow up a bit.

I was thinking today about what I am actually going to do with my life. After leaving university I don’t have many initial options beside trying my best to get a job at a games company. Besides that I could choose to do another Art related job or something creative: Or I could look into a completely new career and use the qualifications I have gained in order to get into this new career. The more I think about it the more I realise that the most likely scenario is that I will at some point be doing something completely new that has nothing to do with the course I am attending at this period in time.

If I intend to get into the games industry then I have to realise that I am going to have to move and that could be complicated if I have things tying me to Leicester or the surrounding areas. Ultimately I don’t want to be defined by my career but by the way I live my life and so I am not too paranoid about ending up with a job that I didn’t originally intend to have. It could be good for me! Who knows what God has planned for me.

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best possible pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to control.” - Psalm 32 vs.8+9

A large part of my learning this year has been realising that I could end up in any place in the near future. I have ended up confronting my largest fear of playing music in front of people and I now thoroughly enjoy doing it. This is all due to God challenging me by presenting me with the opportunity to coordinate worship at Christian Union and it has changed me completely for the better.

My life could take any direction and I have to learn to adapt and mature in the correct ways. I found myself filling in a series of forms today and arranging filing systems… a process I always used to associate with my super-organised Dad. I would often wonder how he could sit and do his jobs for hours and find satisfaction in completing them but now I realise that you learn to do these things simply because you have to: or because you have failed before.

University has been a series of adaptations and I feel that when I leave they will continue until the day I die: I will constantly have to deal with new ways of living and possibly new careers. I guess the point I am trying to make here is that I will adapt to whatever good and bad things happen in the future. Some may think that not getting your target job would be a failure: However I think that the real failure would be not applying yourself to be the best that you can be, no matter what happens, good or bad.

“Give your burdens to the Lord and he will take care of you. He will not permit the Godly to slip and fall.” Psalm 55 vs.22

I think I'll call that one finished...

2009-01-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

I think it is about time I stopped tweaking my self portrait so I can start some new stuff and finish some old stuff. So here it is!

Getting myself rolling again...

2009-01-01T14:52:00.001-08:00

So Christmas is over and New Year has been and gone and now I have to start my engines again in order to get back to the same routine I had going before the holidays...

Christmas was such a great chance to relax for me.. i feel really refreshed, but now I am starting to get frustrated with my inability to do my work for my assesments on the 12th of this month. I have been nice and lazy up until now and apart from the odd bit of doodling and 3D modelling I havent really done anything serious and it is about time I started. I'm aiming high this term... I've been told to aim for nothing but a first and I do intend to.

I think I find that part of the problem is that my emotional state really affects the quality of my work and the fact that I have very little to do at home is not helping. University has ended up feeling like home. I had a bizzare experience when I came to the front door of my parents house and rang the doorbell instead of reaching for my key. It was a sign to me that I had actually moved out for real.

The holiday has been a really good one even though very few of my friends have been around. Seeing family is important and I really realise that when I haven't seen them for a long time.

New Years Eve was a great experience for me, although it did freak me out a little bit. I went to London to see the fireworks with a couple of friends. The atmosphere was strange, it was full of energy but people would get aggressive at the slightest confrontation. Several arguements happened throughout the night, but luckily none of them amounted to anything. The whole thing felt like an apocalyptic scene from a film, people selfishly pushing in crouds and screaming all over the place: it was a bit intimidating when you are the only guy with your friends!

The actual fireworks were incredible and I had a great time laughing with some strangers. There was a bit of a classic moment during the actual display: one guy shouts out "We love you Boris!!" (refering of course to Boris Johnson) to which the drunken Australian guy in front of me yelled out "Bowser?! Who the F*** is Bowser?!".

So now it is the first day of 2009 and I want to make this year one in which I can be proud of how hard I have worked and the way I have gone about it. I want to be a hard worker, an unselfish person at all times and be able to enjoy myself without guilt when I am not working. God help me in all of those things! I need it!

2008-12-12T04:03:00.000-08:00

I actually managed to cut the triangle count on my model by over half for the different level of detail! Im really happy with this although it does make me wonder how inefficient my other model was if this one looks pretty much the same.... hmmmm. Ah well it's all part of the learning process!

A friend pointed out my model is too shiny, I need to sort this out so that the different materials look like their real life examples.

There are a few issues with the LOD atm... for starts the AO map is seeping into different areas... but I can sort that out. There are a couple of smoothing problems aswell wwhich keep cropping up, but again.. I can sort that out with a little grinding. The LOD model is 2992 triangles with a 1024 diffuse map (although I am not sure if that should be down sized for this model).

Self Portrait

2008-12-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

Finished texturing myself and have used an AO map to bake in the shadows. Am now going to rig it and create a different level of detail and take it to about 3000 tris. This model is 6382 tris.

Texturing

2008-12-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

Have begun to texture my model. As Heather always says to, I decided to start putting something on before refining it. At this stage the textures are no where near complete but I am proud of how it is turning out. The photos that I have used for reference have been really easy to use and this is probably due to the type of lighting used when we took the photos. They gave an over all flash which got rid of any shadow information on my face or the rest of my body. If I have to do more characters I may ask friends to go to the studios with me to take photos so that I can use them for reference.

the Christmas doooooooooooooom

2008-12-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

It feels like Christmas.... ITS WRONG!!!! But it feels so good!!!

The time has not yet come! Keep your excitement hidden Simon, a carol service and a Christmassy film should not make you feel this way! You are 19 now and you are not going to get that £150 millenium falcon on the 25th that you so long for.

It's ok people, I do definately remember the meaning of Christmas: In fact I celebrate it very much. I love Jesus, soooo much : I just happen to love the benefits that come with the festival... yummy.

I realise I am probably spelling everything wrong, but I don't care. I don't have time for this blogging malarky. I've got to go and lie awake all night thinking about all the goodies that I shall receive. Oh yes, and of course the pies.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm pies.

More and more of MEEEE

2008-12-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

Finished up the main shape of my self portrait today! I am very happy with it! Seeing as I have use very few polys compared to the allowance I will use the remaining polys to make myself some accessories such as headphones, a jacket and maybe some other goodies. Like I mentioned before, I will be using lots of see through planes to make up the hair. I have used about 3100 polys.

Donnie Darko

2008-12-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

The films that we have been watching recently in lectures have been of a dystopian theme and now we are moving on to looking at films that play tricks with narrative. Donnie Darko is the first of these films.

I had seen this film before, but when I watched it for a second time and made notes about the themes within the film I found I understood a lot more of the techniques that the film makers had used to create the film as a whole. I was particularly interested in the themes running throughout the film and was actually surprised at some of them as they weren’t apparent the first time I had watched it. Here are some of my thoughts on the film, mostly from my notes so I apologise if they are quite disjointed.

Within the first scene it is clear that there is going to be something psychologically dark about this film: The viewer is introduced to Donnie lying in the middle of a mountain road in his pyjamas who appears to not have a clue where he is. Upon arriving home, allusions to Halloween point towards a significant event in the future. Once Frank appears and warns of the end of the world, the whole film becomes shrouded in paranoia and the feeling of impending doom. This feeling escalates as Donnie doesn’t know how to deal with what he has been told and the things happening around him.

The main themes are shown quite obviously in the “fear and love” scene in which the teacher tries to get Donnie to place a scenario onto a scale that only has two answers: fear, and love. Donnie becomes frustrated and angry due to the fact that life just isn’t that simple. I would say that one of the main themes in this film is to do with decision making and Donnie’s inability to choose his actions. His complete overwhelming fear of loneliness leads him to do exactly what Frank (his imaginary friend) tells him to.

Donnie as a character is obviously troubled which is evident when he starts talking about his past in which he burned down an abandoned house and ended up in prison. Not only this, I would argue that his character shows signs of being sexually disturbed, especially when he gets hypnotised and cannot be taken off the topic of sex no matter what the therapist says to him. He is clearly a very intelligent individual that finds it very difficult to deal with his emotions and mental state. His girlfriend says his name sounds like a superheroes name and he says “what makes you think I’m not” which suggests that he may think that he is able to do a greater amount of good or that he just has illusions of grandeur.

His whole attitude is quite immature and seems greatly influenced by films and comics, he mentions at one point his love of “Back to the Future” and how futuristic everything is. Also how similar everything is to the book “The Destructors” is a suggestion that he may have stole ideas from it. Is this whole scenario simply a construction of his twisted imagination being influenced by the things around him?

Another theme that kept coming up was “predestination” and the will of God. Donnie can see what is going to happen in the future, yet he cannot stop it. He argues with a teacher who is teaching him privately about time travel that he cannot choose what he is going to do as it is within the will of God. However when his therapist asks him about why he does what Frank says, he says it is because if he doesn’t he will have nobody left: while he keeps doing what Frank says he at least has him. When asked whether he believes in God he quickly changes subject, most likely out of fear for denying something that could be real. Maybe he is doing the will of God, after all he did burn down the house of a man distributing child pornography without knowing he did that at all.

It could be argued that the entire film after the disaster at the house could have been the result of his deteriorating mental state although there are many signs that this is not true as main characters are shown surviving a better life without him once he has died. Also the jet engine still came from nowhere, the film really gives you no choice but to believe that it all truly happened.

The actual narrative in the film jumps from being literal to figurative. Real world events are explained by the fiction that Donnie is studying in class and everything that is happening around him seems to relate to his personal struggle. Nothing in the film is irrelevant to what is happening.

Over all, I found Donnie Darko to be a very exciting film and so intriguing that I could probably write about it for years! Unfortunately my other projects are calling my name. I would recommend the film to anybody who wants to really think about something deeply.

A little bit more of me!

2008-12-02T16:55:00.000-08:00

Did a massive amount to my self portrait today. Managed to model the body, arms, legs and hands. Now I have to just attach them all and make them realistic, checking that the proportions are right... I am already thinking the arms arent quite right compared to the hands... they just dont fit properly. However, that is a job for another day. Tomorow I think I will get down to creating a torso for my clay model of the head to complete my character.

Mr Old Man

2008-12-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

Did a sculpey model of a male head today that was based on a concept that I drew up. The concept was based on a guy that I had done a quick sketch of in a bar and developed. I REALLY enjoyed making this and surprisingly I made it all today in about 3 hours casual work. SOOO much fun! I am really enjoying making any kind of character based work, especially when it is sculpture related or on 3Ds max. I am starting to think that I would preferably like to be a character artist of some kind or work in that kind of field. Of course I will be considering this more over the next couple of months.

Going Crazy?

2008-11-30T13:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I learnt a valuable lesson.

Yesterday I slept until mid-day, which was a much needed sleep. I did this with the knowledge that the following evening (last night) i would be giving out hot drinks at the student union with the others from the Christian Union. This was so that as people came out of clubs they could have a hot drink and a sandwhich so that we could show a little love and get some great convos going with people.

Now the problem with that was that it was going to be at 2 in the morning... and so as it came to late evening I decided to watch the film Brazil with my house mate and then make my way to bed for a little sleep before I went out. This is where I made a grave mistake. Brazil is a very surreal and slightly disturbing film. I went to sleep for a couple of hours only to wake up not knowing where I was... what was real or even WHO I was. The combination of surreal ideas being planted in my head and lack of any kind of decent sleep or sleeping pattern resulted in me feeling a little bit crazy.

The moral of the story... sleep well, at regular times and don't watch weird films before bed or you may wake up as confused as I did!

Learning from this... I am off to bed... without any strange images of Bob Hoskins in my head. Yes it is as weird as it sounds.

My self portrait

2008-11-29T09:07:00.000-08:00

Pretty much finished the model for the head of my self portrait in 3ds max. There are improvements to be made to the mesh but Im sure that I can do that once I have done other parts of the body. Once I have some textures on the model I intend to make the hair using lots of planes and alpha textures. This is fun!

I've used about 1000 polys at this point but I think i can lose about 20.

My day as a movie star!

2008-11-29T06:07:00.000-08:00

My day yesterday ended up making me feel somewhat of a movie star! It started with a nice early 8 o'clock start (a time I had started to beleive was mythological) and I headed down to the university with my house mates to do some filming in the green-screen rooms. All I had to do was take a drink and act poisoned and die... a simple task for anybody with a simple acting bone in their body, a feature that I'm sure God left out when he drew up my blueprints.

The whole experience made me feel like I was in Star Wars, you know... the bad ones. I wasn't complaining! The interesting thing about it was the use of lighting to create certain moods. The shot we were doing was intended to have a film noir feels and so a heavy spot light was used to create heavy drop-shadow.

Soon after I had finished filming with my friends I headed on to the photography studios in order to both take pictures of my maquettes and to get some reference pictures of myself so that I could create myself in 3Ds max. The lighting rigs were surprising: a large amount of lights were used in order that there was no particular shadow and create a flat lighting. All of the flash lights were attached to the actual camera.

Once a few of us had enjoyed the photoshoot (a little too much), a seperate lighting rig was set up so that I could take pictures of my models. These were set up so that we could have a directional light. The guy helping me out explained that often people have the preconception that you can just take a picture and it will turn out the same as you see it at the time. However, he went on to explain that the directional light simply helps to pick up surface details and create shadow, it is the flash that creats the exposure needed to get a successful picture.

It was a very exciting morning and it actually left me quite exausted! I think I may go and book the photographic studios again at some point so that I can take some more pictures for reference such as poses and maybe some more of my models could be presented better this way.

Personal Development

2008-11-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple of weeks I have been studying how the muscles and bones are structured within the human body. This was so that I could draw them in a more believable way. I have noticed a real increase in my confidence to drawing and sculpting the human form and I would highly reccomend other people doing a similar project. Wenever I felt I didnt understand a part of the body or thought it was difficult to draw I gave it a go after looking at my anatomy and drawing books for at least an hour.

This has lead to me being more confident with creating interesting characters. This one was based on a quick sketch of a guy in a pub. You wanna find weird looking people? Go into a pub during the day!

Once you start to understand the bones at a simple level, it becomes easier to draw because you know what to expect out of each shape. Another thing that surprised me was that actually sculpting the shapes helped tremendously to help me understand how they worked.

Adventures in Cinema - The City of Lost Children

2008-11-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

The City of Lost Children is a French film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, made in 1995. The film is set in a supposedly, post-apocalyptic, surrealist society. A scientist kidnaps children in order to steal their dreams as he cannot have any of his own. This has resulted in him ageing too quickly and in order to save his own life he relies on finding a child that can help him experience any kind of positive dream.

Early on in the film a strong man in a freak show loses his little brother when the scientist sends “the Cyclops” to collect some children to sample their dreams. These characters are a kind of religious cult who have decided to blind themselves to the world in order to hide them selves from its sinfulness. They rely on a mechanical eye to see in a more sterile manner. The strong man (who is simply called One) is played by Ron Pearlman. His character is an ex-sailor who speaks French very crudely, in the same stereotypical way that The Hulk breaks his sentences. One is joined by a young orphan called Miette, a character who has very many similarities to Little-Red Riding Hood or Alice from Alice In Wonderland.

Many of the characters in the film borrow from the kind of fairy tale mentality of a child but the surrounding world seems corrupt and polluted: Riveted surfaces, dirty sewers and an oil rig are the main settings for the film. This juxtaposition works wonderfully and along with using a striking colour palette this suggests a completely alternate universe for you to explore. Interestingly, the main theme of the film is dreams and nightmares and the world seems very much like a twisted, nightmarish version of what it is supposed to be. I think that the best way to describe the experience would be like watching a cruel world through the eyes of an innocent child.

There are many references within the script to things such as “The Big Bad Wolf” and “The Sandman” and the characters themselves also fit very familiar roles to the ones that you may have heard in children’s stories. For example:

The Uncle (literally a brain on life support) is the intelligence figure. He represents logic and science. He is also the sandman character in the film and at times seems to act as a conscience for the scientist.
The evil twin sisters who run the orphanage speak at exactly the same time and are effectively one person (although you could dispute this as they fight later in the film).
One, the strong man, is a physically powerful character with very little brains but a big heart.
Miette represents the innocence of children and is the only character in the film that is not filthy or grotesque to look at.
The orphans are effectively thieves, much like in Oliver Twist.
The four brothers are clones, and they all act the same also but they all battle for individuality and want desperately to be the original.

There are other characters which borrow from other stories or history also. The Cyclops seem to believe that they are a master race and want to convert all to their cause. This is very reminiscent of both a negative view to evangelical religion and historical dictatorship such as the Nazi movement. The cult leader is heard to say that “only through the third eye will you truly see” which is an idea taken from eastern religion. It is quite clear that the writer Jeunet has a very negative view of religion and the corruption it can bring. From the outside the Cyclops appear grotesque and rather than becoming less evil they appear to hide from evil by removing their ability to perceive it. Maybe Jeunet was making a comment about the hypocritical nature of religion: he may believe that religion is not a solution to the problem of the world but that it is just a way of deceiving oneself and closing ones eyes to the corruption and suffering.

On the other hand, some of the Cyclops allow themselves to be able to hear or see with a greater sensitivity than before. At a stretch, this could be just a way of showing how easily offended religious types can be. The slightest noise startles them are causes an uproar. However I am just reading into the matter quite deeply.

The relationship between One and Miette is actually quite a disturbing one. It appears at first to simply be one of a brother and sister and it is often referred to as that, but the appearance of it is that there is something more sexual to it than that. There are many hints at this in the film even to the extent that they have what could be interpreted as a consummation scene in which they are both lying next to each other. Of course this is very metaphorical if my argument is correct. Furthermore, to develop this idea there is a scene in which Miette asks One if he will ever find a woman and he seems to say “there is no hurry to find a woman”. Again this could be interpreted that he would wait for her to grow older before initiating a relationship with her. These are quite hidden themes and maybe they are there just to get the viewer thinking or on their toes when identifying what these people are really like. Against all of this is the fact that they call each other brother and sister so I may be completely incorrect.

The colours in the film range from being Christmas themed (which again seems to represent the warm innocent dream world) to industrial browns, greys and toxic greens. Miette carries the same colours as the dream world which is again a directorial trick to show her innocence visually. In the dreams, Santa is present but the dreams quickly turn to nightmares. The Scientist dresses up as Santa later on and terrifies the children corrupting that dream and becoming their nightmare.

Overall the film was a very strange experience, but one that the viewer can get drawn into very easily. All aspects of the film work together effectively, which actually makes this strange world quite believable: The fantastical technology that looks old fashioned, the polluted world and the wonderfully strong characters all work together to create a picture that is disturbing yet familiar.

Club?

2008-10-29T04:13:00.000-07:00

Having trouble with this one.... am seeking help... was trying to go for the grotty club look.

My "atmospheric environment"

2008-10-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

Trying to make a spooky church environment. This is how its going so far!

War of the Worlds

2008-10-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

My interpretation of the tripods from H.G.Wells' War of the Worlds. Still a work in progress!

"We are all born artists, we are just educated out of it"

2008-10-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share some thoughts that I have gathered on education. It is something that is very important in our society and in other societies it can actually mean the difference between the gutter and the luxurious life we consider to be normal and mundane.

Under the current education system within our country, the arts are often considered to be of lower priority than other subjects. There seems to be an idea that is drilled into our brains from a very young age that you need to be good at Maths, Science and English in order to survive whatever the future may bring. The problem with this is that it is essentially an outdated system that was introduced to meet the needs of industrialism and gear us toward working in factories and managing buisnesses.

Sir Ken Robinson is a man with extensive recognition for his work into creativity, innovation and human resources. He argues that the current education system actually hinders the artistic minds of children that are lead through it. In a radical lecture posted online to TED.com he expresses his desire to see multiple forms of intelligence recognised and celebrated within our society. He reminds us of something Picasso once said: "We are all born artists, we are just educated out of it".

The current culture has resulted in a certain amount of mild prejudism. Many have been known to consider the arts as a less valid career option and suggested an academic qualification as a more valid career option. I have experienced this is the the last 5 years of my life as I have started my serious education in Art and Design subjects. Even reading that previous sentence will be enough to make many people scoff and chuckle:

"oh yea?... so wait... you want to get a job colouring things in?"
"it's not REAL work is it, it's all a doss really isn't it?"

I have experienced both of these comments within the last week and I, like many others, wish for a change and for a sense of recognition for the kind of work that I aspire to and train toward. There is also the question of relevance: many people will often comment that they will not ever need to know about volcanoes from year 9 geography when doing paperwork in Slough.

"I've got qualifications in biology and metalwork. So if you ever need someone to weld your budgie, I'm your man!" (tacky jokebook... it makes a point somehow!)

As a rich nation, Britain has a large supply of luxury items. Something to consider is, how many of those actually have creative individuals within the design process? Something that people forget is that Film, Games, Music, Textiles and Fashion are all highly in demand and there are growing oppertunities to gain a sustainable career after studying into these areas.

Interestingly, some schools and colleges have started to recognise this and invest in new ways of inpiring children to retain their fearless creativity. Many of the people in my family are teachers. When talking with my sister she mentioned that the primary school she works at is actually investing money and time in a kind of "creativity time" in which they explore the visual, audible and kinetic arts. On the other end of the spectrum, when my Dad stepped down from being a full time Art and Design teacher, the man who replaced him stripped the classroom of all its visually inspiring trinkets that were full of great textures and forms. This must have taken away a great deal of inspiration that the students could have gained from real life.

I will continue along this line of thought soon. There are many things to be said about education and I would like to cover more of them.

Should I believe the hype? Even after I have seen The Dark Knight?

2008-07-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

Heath Ledger. There is no doubt in my mind that much of the hype surrounding his performance as The Joker is due to his unfortunate death.

I managed to see The Dark Knight on the first day it was out here in the UK and I have to say I found it both exhilarating and refreshing as a film. Scenes were expertly put together and many memorably dark decisions were cast in front of the audience to marvel both at the character of The Joker and the strength of the "symbol" of the Batman. I really enjoyed that aspect of the film: the Joker always found a way to make things incredibly worse for everybody just because he felt like it. His mysterious and unexpected nature were entertaining in such a deeply sinister way that you couldn't help but.... love him...

Now I know that I have already said that I enjoyed this film, but the problem in the back of my mind is that I remember feeling the same kind of satisfaction after seeing Batman Begins and later realising that it was not as strong a film as I had remembered. Is much of what we enjoy from a film based on what we have been told prior to seeing it by advertising, or even critics opinions that we have had forced in front of our eyes?

Whether I say that The Dark Knight is a good film or not seems to be dependant on me seeing it for a second time after the initial hype has died down. I did thouroughly enjoy it first time however, which could suggest the arguement that it is a good film but that I just don't want to like it because everybody else does. Upon seeing it a second time I could decide not to like it to make a statement of some description.

When it comes to film or music or even any expressive arts, like many others I find that I want to have my own identity rooted in what I like. If I come across something that initially gets my heart beating in all the right ways, I want everybody to know that I discovered it first, somehow affiliating me to that particular expression. It's either that or I take a complete offence to what has been put in front of me so that I can declare that it is rubbish and too mainstream to be acceptable by my supreme opinion.

I think this is a common condition. I would even say that people have always been the same in this sense, always wanting to be involved in "the latest craze" which comparably, during ancient times would have probably been the latest cult or religion (ooo bit of a stretch!! but you get my point).

Back to our leather clad friend: My main frustration with the film came from the real world situation surrounding it. The realisation that what I was watching was the only time I could ever watch the Joker, there was no excitement when they suggested a relationship between batman and his arch nemesis that could span beyond one film. Also the change of actress for the character of Rachael left me struggling to imagine who she was in the previous film and I kept trying to fit her square shaped personality into the new triangular hole. It made me take a step back and realise that it was..just a film. Much like when you are playing a computer game and a terrible glitch steals away the realism and makes you aware that it is just a game.

Finally, one of my only true critisisms is one that has nothing to do with the quality of the film. It should not have been a 12. I was actually disgusted that children would be allowed to watch such a traumatic, violent and disturbing film with a moral compass that tends to face NNW. I would not want any child to watch that film, make it a 15, great! That way it is justifiable. As a 12 it could confuse about true right and wrong, it could traumatise them and give them nightmares that won't go away very easily. Somebody clearly thought they could bend the rules (again!!!) so that they could get more money. Surprise surprise. I am fed up of seeing films with a 12 rating that have little difference to 18 rated films from 5 years ago.

Yes... I think that it had many classic film moments that will stick with me forever. Yes... I think that Heath Ledger was genuinely incredible as The Joker. Many scenes come to mind when I say that, which just proves to me that I am being a ponse.

There we are, I have just dicovered that I am just stubborn when it comes to having my identity rooted in the materialistic achievements of others. In other words, I am selfconcious and not proud enough of who I am but feel I have to add to that by saying what I like or dislike. I'm not the only one though am I? ;)

Trying to master atmospheric painting

2008-07-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have been trying a tutorial today to do with painting an atmospheric landscape. I recently designed a character that could fit into this kind of landscape very easily. I designed him to be a man wearing wolf-skin after I had been reading an article about wolves and felt inspired to create a feral feeling personality. After reading the tutorial briefly I decided there was a lot to offer and so I thought I would have a try.

This picture is about half way to what I want it to be. It is based very closely on the tutorial example but I have done every step myself. I am really enjoying doing this. Everytime I do a new photoshop tutorial I feel like I am learning a million things.

Rooting for a friend

2008-07-17T05:12:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine that has left University this year, Pete Curran, has just come in the top ten in a film festival called From Here To Awesome and the film will be available very soon on amazon. Thoroughly enjoyed it and I expect that he will make many more great films. Heres the advert.

Respect your elders!

2008-07-17T04:35:00.000-07:00

Finished the old man I was creating. However, I couldnt quite decide which was better: without the original line drawing, or including. I think personally for my own style I like to have the line drawing over the top, but it may need a little tweaking if I am ever to display it properly. I did paint it so that it would look realistic without the lines following a tutorial. I really enjoyed making it.

The more I practice, the more I realise that I enjoy drawing a lot more when I start getting good at it. I think that I will spend a lot of time trying to learn new techniques so that I can decide whether it is something I want to pursue as a career.

Faces faces faces

2008-07-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

Made this guy up after watching the DVD on drawing the male head. Painted him today based on some articles I read in ImagineFX. I felt geeky buying that magazine.. but I think it is going to prove useful.

At the time of painting him I was litening to an audio reading of I Am Legend, the original book. I found it really funny that I imagined the main character to look like him. Even though the character is supposed to be young. Oh well, it was fun!

Finished Model

2008-06-30T13:39:00.001-07:00

Finished what I could on this model. I realise that the UVs are really messed up n that the textures on the bodyu and hair could be alot better. However, I am really happy with the face. Next time I will use unfold 3D and make sure that my model is compatible with it in order to improve my textures.

I have learnt so much from making this model. I now hope to make my Dad to improve on these skills. If not, I at least wish to rig this model at some point. For some reason the idea of seeing my Mum backflip is a hilarious enough idea for me to want to do that.

It ended up being about 2900 polys and I used a 512/512 diffuse map and lit it for these shots. I could add ambient occlusion to bake this lighting in.

getting there!

2008-06-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely I am making progress. Had sooooo much difficulty with the ears and was determined to use unfold 3D but it really hated my model and for a reason that is unclear to me it didnt want to work. Therefore I had to do all the unwrapping myself. For the moment I have blocked in solid colours just as a guide. I intend to paint the whole model and then just add overlaying textures to it to make it look like real fabric etc. I made the eyes seperately but im not sure that I will do the same again next time.

making my mum!!

2008-06-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Have been attempting to make my Mum in 3D and have made many mistakes along the way but I'm actually pretty happy with how it is going so far. It may not be the most technically correct model ever, but its starting to actually look like her, which is always good.

However, I have learnt a few lessons from doing this. Making the edge loops go full circle is something I need to do in my next model. I have ended up with alot of optimising that has resulted in more polys, and a higher chance of smoothing problems (therefore more time needed to work on it). Although the tutorial I am watching has said that triangles dont matter too much, I find them very difficult to deal with so I am going to try to avoid having them appear from now on.

I think my work flow could be alot faster next time aswell, I found many things had to be redone and that I confused myself way too often with things being inside other things... Im going to move on to making the body now and follow the Ben Mathis tutorials as I feel I am already learning soo much.

Now I just have to find a time when I can draw... and a life.. hmmmm :P

Another speed paint

2008-06-02T09:11:00.001-07:00

Heres another, still just trying to get better at representing people on photoshop. I've also done some face drawings that I'll put up as soon as I can dig out the scanner. This one took me bout.. 45 mins I reckon.. I say reckon because it was more for fun than a serious exercise, didn't really count. Tried to focus on proportion and light. Again, took reference from my anatomy book as I didn't have a model.

further development...not going anywhere fast!

2008-05-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

worked on this pic for another hour or 2... im still bloody slow... need to keep practicing this stuff.. but like I said before, this is a way in which I am practicing several techniques that I have taken the time to learn recently.

Trying to paint people :S

2008-05-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

I have no idea why.. but it seems I have completely forgotten how to draw people from life. To improve this situation (considering it's late at night, therefore no model) I have tried to draw some poses from my anatomy book on photoshop. I've done each in about 20 minutes. The male being the first I painted. I decided to use this style after watching a speed paint that an artist did for the new prince of persia: I felt quite inspired that somebody could do such a high quality picture in such a short time. I will also need to try and learn how to draw some of these pictures in traditional materials aswell. Most importantly, I want to be able to draw from life realistically. I see these paintings as a starting point, a way to start my hand working alongside my brain like it should do!