ba2 - 500 Word evaluation

I would regard this project as more successful than the previous. I think the best decision I made was to start playing with ZBrush early. It allowed me to sculpt more quickly and try out more designs before committing to the final sculpt. ZBrush is a lot of fun. I certainly find it easier to express my ideas in than Maya or Photoshop. 

Most, if not all of my iteration was done in ZBrush. The pro is that it helped with understanding the software. The con is that maybe the iterations are less varied than they could be.

I’m very happy with the final gargoyle. Judging by the reaction of my friends I’d say people generally recoil to some degree when they first see the sculpt, which was my goal. One aspect I’m not as happy with is the stand from which the gargoyle is hanging. The stand arose from the fact that gravity pulls water towards the earth so it seemed counterproductive to have some kind of system which pumps the water upwards. The design does look a bit forced though. Hopefully it’s original at least. If I’d had more time I would’ve spent it refining the stand.

I did notice the export to 3D printer option in the menus. It isn’t directly related to games design but I’d love to model figurines as a job. I don’t suppose the polycount or topology would really be an issue, not that I found it much of an issue in this project either. 

I was dreading starting the essay as I always do when the title is vague. However, once I mind mapped the games industry and figured out what I wanted to write about It went quite swimmingly. I was able to gather a huge library of references form my collection of YouTube videos and bookmarked articles on games design. I’ve also been reading through ‘Reality is Broken’ by Jane Mcgonigal and ‘Understanding Videogames: The essential Introduction’.  I’ve recently finished reading Anna Anthropy’s ‘Rise of the Videogame Zinesters’ too so I had lots of references in mind when writing the essay. I think that helped.

I emailed Robin Silcock and Lester Francois, director of ‘Game Loading: Rise of the Indies’, to be released March 13^th. Both are great contacts to have and I’m much more confident in messaging game developers online now. I spoke to some game developers in real life too at the Norwich Indie Game Dev meetup. It was very cool to be in a room with so many indie game devs at once and to get tips on my own game development.

Overall, it has been a successful project. I’m much more interested in 3D modelling now as a potential career choice and I think I’ve improved a lot. I’m definitely going to continue using ZBrush in my spare time.

Project 02 - My YouTube 3D Collection

HERE is a link to my personal playlist of videos I've watched to help me learn specific things in Zbrush.
They've been extremely helpful in learning the software. 

Project 02 - My YouTube Games Design Collection

 HERE is a link to my personal playlist of YouTube videos on Game Design. I've been accumulating this list for a couple of years now and it's only the best of the hundreds of Game Design talks (etc...) I've watched.They've been very useful for referencing quotes in my essay on Games Design.

Project 02 - Eraserhead Spoilers

I knew this film would be relevant to the project because of its uncanny nature.
The film subverts the viewers expectations brilliantly by setting up a scene done in many movies and then surprising the viewer when it goes differently. Surprises are funny, and especially weird when juxtaposed with the surrealist-horror theme of the rest of the film.

I won't explore the cinematography or metaphors too much because it's not relevant to the project

One of the creepy things that stood out to me is how obviously 1-dimensional the characters all are; most of them keep the same expression or two for the whole time they're on camera. This is clearly intentional and it feels creepy because you can never be sure whether their expression represents what they are feeling or whether it's a metaphorical mask, hiding something else.

This scene features one of the only characters with much of a personality.

Her cheeks are all swollen and scarred (reminds me of my operation) as she smiles, enjoying the experience of playing with and crushing the fetuses on the ground.

The scarring is interesting because it makes the swelling look painful, causing the viewer to revel back in sympathy/empathy.
 

This is what may face looked like a few days after having both of my jaws displaced. The operation was called a (Bi-maxillary Ostectomy).

It looks uncomfortable because it was. My jaws were clamped together for 2 weeks but it was a surprisingly enjoyable experience nevertheless.

I definitely think I can replicate the soreness this picture and the one above evokes in a sculpture though. I think it'll improve the creepy factor.

The scene where Henry cuts open the baby's bandages was my favorite and the most powerful scene for sure. The shock when you realize that the only thing keeping the baby still alive has been torn apart is pretty strong and watching it shake in pain is quite distressing.

That's the emotion I'm looking for with my gargoyle.
My sweeping statement for the day is:

"The stronger the emotional reaction, the better the artwork."

Project 02 - Apex 2015

I did no work whatsoever on Sunday because I was watching Super Smash Brothers Melee (SSBM) at Apex 2015 on twitch. Since Ryan and Jake Neal did their lecture I've been able to consider SSBM as a viable source of income.
I was surprised to learn that the winnings for the tournament are considerably smaller than a lot of other competitive games such as Starcraft 2 and DotA 2.
I think most competitive gamers and speedrunners make the majority of their income through twitch streaming rather than tournaments. For a lot of people it's a job on the side too, rather than the main source of income.

Regarding our essay on roles within the industry, I don't think I'll work towards competitive gaming/ speed running as a main goal; rather a secondary hobby/job besides:
Games Designer/ Management?
Game Theorist?
Fine Artist (making interactive works of art)?
Game Journalism?

Project 02 - Indie Dev Meetup

I didn't want to be intrusive and take pictures of everyone but I met up with 20ish indies in Wetherspoons the other day. I found out about the meetup because when applying for the course and researching Marie-Clare I saw that she was part of the Norwich Indie Developers group on Meetup.com. I've been part of the group ever since and this was my first time actually meeting everyone.

Between us there was easily enough people to start an independent game dev team with programmers, 3D and 2D artists, designers, sound guys, marketing etc...

With so little experience relative to everyone there I think it'll be difficult to convince them that I really do know what I'm talking about in regards to design (unless I'm ignorant). I'd like to work back into some of my older games again. I started reworking 'Deep Rising' again yesterday. If I can ever get it to a finished/polished point I'll show it off.
I'll probably release it for free online
or
I'll release a 'demo' version online and a (fairly cheap) payed version on Itch.io.

It was certainly interesting to meet so many indies nevertheless and I'll have some questions lined up for the next meetup.