It has been a right whirl wind of a week. A lot of stuff has changed and it has been a bit breath taking.
For starters, my third year (it is what all the first years refer to our guru's as), Maxwell, has finally left and gone to India. My flatmates all know how frustrated I have recently got with 3DS Max, and they all know how much he has helped me with it. I don't know about the other first years that were in my group, but I will really miss him even though I had only known him for a short time. I wish him the best of luck in everything, and when anyone rips a page from their sketchbook, I will remember Tristan telling Max off for doing exactly that same thing at the portrait sessions. I hope he has landed okay, and is settling in fine, but I do not like to bother him as I have bothered him so much the last few months.
Next, I have handed in my house, and have received a new project from my 3d tutor. This one is to create two types of trees in 3DS Max, but not palm trees. This should be interesting as I had got a lot of reference material from Bradgate park on trees, and have been drawing a lot of them recently for my 2d work. However, I am tempted to pop down to Abbey Park to take some more reference images, and to do some more drawing either tomorrow or Monday morning. I am not too sure if I am ready for the feedback on my review day later next week though.
Third thing, I have found a house. Technically, my soon to be house mates have found a house, in which they sweetly offered me the attic bedroom, as my sketchbooks like to scatter themselves everywhere. All that is needed to be done really at this stage, is to go through the contract and make sure that there is not any hidden messages. This will take a while as I do not want to sign anything quickly, without at least a few people looking over it. But I am excited for this. Renting my first house is a big thing but it can be screwed up in so many ways.
Fourthly, the not so great news, I went doctors after going to a gig the Wednesday just passed to see Skillrex. The gig was fantastic, and Skillrex was amazing live, but I am now in a lot of pain once again. I have had issues with my ribs before, actually all this year, and I am currently supporting two fracture ribs which is making simple tasks like breathing or laughing difficult and painful. If I seem snappy over the next few weeks, you know why and please do not take it to heart. But according to the doctor, I injured them in January (which I knew of), but the reason that they kept me in pain was due to the fact that I kept re fracturing one of them. And it does not seem to want to heal. They have pretty much told me not to move and to rest them for the next few months so that this one fracture can heal properly. Which is fine, except it's me, I tend to be up and moving constantly exploring, which means I can not go running about in abandon buildings looking for hot spots to draw, and paint with my friends. Nor climbing up these buildings either. Or trees. Or rocks. Or hopping rock to rock across a river when we head up to the woods. My cold exploring December of home to draw has been ruined by one stupid rib. This has disappointed me. But then again, when have I ever really listened to doctors?
I also have fish on my blog. Appreciate them, cause they need the love.
Listening to: Ocean live by John Butler
Saturday 3 December 2011
Personal gaming history.
Now this is a bit jumpy as I have quickly reviewed the last few decades of history that surrounds games and computers, and here I am jumping back a decade to outline how my tiny role fits in to this massive fast paced time scale.
I had a bit of an unusual childhood compared to others. I was born deaf, and I did not actually hear any solid clear sound until I was six and a half after an emergency operation. Now granted, this made my life quite difficult, and cause a lot of frustrations since I could not really communicate with people well, especially my mother and teachers. However, video games had the opposite effect on me, as did drawing. This made me look at both of these things differently.
To understand a video game, you do not need to understand the story line, or being able to read the text, or listen to the cut scenes or music. They do play an important role, and they do create part of the atmosphere, and it helps to know exactly what is going on. But to actually grasp on what you need to do, or how to play, you do not need sound nor the text. I will explain a bit later on in this post.
It started when my mother brought me and my sibling a sega mega drive when I was roughly three/four, and my sibling was five. Obviously, one of the best games fell in to my lap, which was the original Sonic the hedgehog. I spent hours on that thing and my little four year old thumbs must have aged to ten year old thumbs at least.
Later on that year, I got my hands on the original grey brick of a game boy, and my mother brought me the best and worst thing ever: Pokemon Blue (yes, I did actually get it the day it was released, like every other Pokemon game since). What my mother nor my brother understood was this, that at the age of four, it had created a beast within me that would evolve in to a fifteen year (and counting) obsession with Pokemon (and the rumours of me having a Pokemon tattoo is true, as well as the rumours of me wanting that extended to have my first original team are too). I am not too sure if Pokemon or Sonic was my first video game, I knew they were within months of one another, but I saw it as Sonic was my first console game, and Pokemon was my first hand held game. On the right, is a picture of my mew tattoo an hour after it was done. It looks so uneven.
Now linking back to me being deaf as a child, you can play Sonic or Pokemon and grasp what the entire idea is. Sonic, you're the hedgehog, collecting rings, avoiding the creatures, defeating the bad guy with the ginger moustache, whilst saving the little bunnies and ducklings. You do not need music or text to let you grasp hold on that, Pokemon is similar too, they were both simple, yet addictive, games. I felt happier as a child, knowing that I could understand this as some everyday tasks were nearly impossible for me. It was this magical feeling, that I found this unquestionable connection to something and it did not get frustrated at me because I could not understand it. I am not good at explaining it, but hopefully you will understand how this became an amazing accomplishment for me.
My sega died a tragic death when I was six. Between the ages of six to eight, all I played was tetris, and Pokemon. At the age of eight (when I could hear), I had changed schools the year previously, and this is where the second stage of my gaming history begins. I got introduced to Spyro the Dragon, I know, a classic, everyone loved him, typical girl game, still the fact still remains I became obsessed with games that were not hand held anymore. I begged for a playstation, and I received one. This made my love spiral out of control and I became in love with Gran Turismo, Gex, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, but most importantly, Sony.
After that, I started to expand and experiment with other areas of the video games. Currently I only own a: PS3, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, Gameboy SP, N64, Sega Megadrive (I have brought another one recently to replace my old one), and a Xbox. Along with the original grey Gameboy and every version of it up to the Nintendo DS, including a limit edition Pokemon Gameboy colour.
I feel like games are becoming more complicated, like how books can be. I understand that they are on a similar path, opening up an entire new world that anything is possible, such developed characters that are well loved, creatures that haunt your thoughts or you want to own, but when I was younger, books were always much more in depth, whereas the video games were more basic. I could not have read a book being young and deaf, but a video game, I could play that.
The most memorable games from my childhood are: Sonic the hedgehog, Spyro the dragon, any Pokemon games and gran turismo. These are my top four played games, and most loved games, still to this day.
I would not mind more video games becoming basic like they were. Sonic the hedgehog was a massive success, but it was so simple and addictive. I feel like some games, are like books, you have to play them often to remember what is going on, who is doing what, and where to go. I feel like they have lost that little magic touch of simplicity.
Listening to: Bring Me The Horizon, and You Me At Six.
I had a bit of an unusual childhood compared to others. I was born deaf, and I did not actually hear any solid clear sound until I was six and a half after an emergency operation. Now granted, this made my life quite difficult, and cause a lot of frustrations since I could not really communicate with people well, especially my mother and teachers. However, video games had the opposite effect on me, as did drawing. This made me look at both of these things differently.
To understand a video game, you do not need to understand the story line, or being able to read the text, or listen to the cut scenes or music. They do play an important role, and they do create part of the atmosphere, and it helps to know exactly what is going on. But to actually grasp on what you need to do, or how to play, you do not need sound nor the text. I will explain a bit later on in this post.
It started when my mother brought me and my sibling a sega mega drive when I was roughly three/four, and my sibling was five. Obviously, one of the best games fell in to my lap, which was the original Sonic the hedgehog. I spent hours on that thing and my little four year old thumbs must have aged to ten year old thumbs at least.
Later on that year, I got my hands on the original grey brick of a game boy, and my mother brought me the best and worst thing ever: Pokemon Blue (yes, I did actually get it the day it was released, like every other Pokemon game since). What my mother nor my brother understood was this, that at the age of four, it had created a beast within me that would evolve in to a fifteen year (and counting) obsession with Pokemon (and the rumours of me having a Pokemon tattoo is true, as well as the rumours of me wanting that extended to have my first original team are too). I am not too sure if Pokemon or Sonic was my first video game, I knew they were within months of one another, but I saw it as Sonic was my first console game, and Pokemon was my first hand held game. On the right, is a picture of my mew tattoo an hour after it was done. It looks so uneven.Now linking back to me being deaf as a child, you can play Sonic or Pokemon and grasp what the entire idea is. Sonic, you're the hedgehog, collecting rings, avoiding the creatures, defeating the bad guy with the ginger moustache, whilst saving the little bunnies and ducklings. You do not need music or text to let you grasp hold on that, Pokemon is similar too, they were both simple, yet addictive, games. I felt happier as a child, knowing that I could understand this as some everyday tasks were nearly impossible for me. It was this magical feeling, that I found this unquestionable connection to something and it did not get frustrated at me because I could not understand it. I am not good at explaining it, but hopefully you will understand how this became an amazing accomplishment for me.
My sega died a tragic death when I was six. Between the ages of six to eight, all I played was tetris, and Pokemon. At the age of eight (when I could hear), I had changed schools the year previously, and this is where the second stage of my gaming history begins. I got introduced to Spyro the Dragon, I know, a classic, everyone loved him, typical girl game, still the fact still remains I became obsessed with games that were not hand held anymore. I begged for a playstation, and I received one. This made my love spiral out of control and I became in love with Gran Turismo, Gex, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, but most importantly, Sony.
After that, I started to expand and experiment with other areas of the video games. Currently I only own a: PS3, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, Gameboy SP, N64, Sega Megadrive (I have brought another one recently to replace my old one), and a Xbox. Along with the original grey Gameboy and every version of it up to the Nintendo DS, including a limit edition Pokemon Gameboy colour.I feel like games are becoming more complicated, like how books can be. I understand that they are on a similar path, opening up an entire new world that anything is possible, such developed characters that are well loved, creatures that haunt your thoughts or you want to own, but when I was younger, books were always much more in depth, whereas the video games were more basic. I could not have read a book being young and deaf, but a video game, I could play that.
The most memorable games from my childhood are: Sonic the hedgehog, Spyro the dragon, any Pokemon games and gran turismo. These are my top four played games, and most loved games, still to this day.
I would not mind more video games becoming basic like they were. Sonic the hedgehog was a massive success, but it was so simple and addictive. I feel like some games, are like books, you have to play them often to remember what is going on, who is doing what, and where to go. I feel like they have lost that little magic touch of simplicity.
Listening to: Bring Me The Horizon, and You Me At Six.
Saturday 26 November 2011
Inspiration has just hit...
and I need to blog about it. What better place to put it than in my game art blog, as that is exactly where the outcome of this magical hit of inspiration came from. Let me explain first.
I have always been a massive reader, since I was little. I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on, and it was not until I was older than I became more picky with my choices, but found that any book I picked up I could read till the end if I pressured myself enough to. There have been books when I have had to restart them several times to get through.
Now, someone close and dear to me, held a lot of influence over my reading about a two years a go. They introduced me to Philip Pullman and his dark materials trilogy, they introduced me to John Green (who I have recently fallen in love with cause I've only checked him out this January), Dan Brown (I did not take much interest in him until I became much more interested in religion). Likewise, I influenced them as well. But every time I see these authors names, or the characters illustrations or talks, or anything linking to the books and stories, my mind flutters back to that happy place which has long gone and died.
However, there was one book that I just could not get in to. Artemis Fowl. I received during this period the first four books of the series (there is eight, only seven released, but two years a go only six were released). After fuming at 3ds max, and trooping back to the home of the mother to get a change of environment to clear my head. I went for a bath to give myself a break. All of my beautiful books are shelved in an Kendall known order at university, and my not so much loved stories are at home. I picked up Artemis Fowl to take with me just to entertain me for half an hour, nothing more.
I've been reading for about forty minutes and I am already on sixty three. How could I have not loved this book two years a go? Okay, I was slightly younger, being seventeen, but I had read much heavier books than this, like Tolkien, Stephen King, Ian McEwan, or Charles Dickens, even Shakespeare. The writing style is clever, being easy and quick to read but not too draining on description, nor relying on simple chatter to get the story along. The story is quirky, and quick paced. The characters are solid and lovable, yet in that mist of knowing that no one is like them because it is impossible to know of anyone like them. You can relate to them but they still have that magic surrounding them.
I know this is a random post, but you will see in the future posts why this post is needed. Even if it does seem like a random babble of words flowing on your screen with a time stamp of 2:00am in the morning (I am an insomniac so I am up at the most unusual hours). I get the majority of my inspiration from books or music, and I have begun to believe that I would only find inspiration in my music. But now, I have fallen back in love with books and reading, which has boosted my inspiration meter.
Now, off to tackle 3ds max, and let it taunt me some more, before I conquer it and hopefully make a realistic old mill.
Also Artemis Fowl has been released as a Graphic novel, guess what I will be requesting when I get some cash in from my job at Christmas!
P.s. I need more images on my blog. Wall of texts are not attractive.
Listening to: Jack Johnson
I have always been a massive reader, since I was little. I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on, and it was not until I was older than I became more picky with my choices, but found that any book I picked up I could read till the end if I pressured myself enough to. There have been books when I have had to restart them several times to get through.
Now, someone close and dear to me, held a lot of influence over my reading about a two years a go. They introduced me to Philip Pullman and his dark materials trilogy, they introduced me to John Green (who I have recently fallen in love with cause I've only checked him out this January), Dan Brown (I did not take much interest in him until I became much more interested in religion). Likewise, I influenced them as well. But every time I see these authors names, or the characters illustrations or talks, or anything linking to the books and stories, my mind flutters back to that happy place which has long gone and died.
However, there was one book that I just could not get in to. Artemis Fowl. I received during this period the first four books of the series (there is eight, only seven released, but two years a go only six were released). After fuming at 3ds max, and trooping back to the home of the mother to get a change of environment to clear my head. I went for a bath to give myself a break. All of my beautiful books are shelved in an Kendall known order at university, and my not so much loved stories are at home. I picked up Artemis Fowl to take with me just to entertain me for half an hour, nothing more.
I've been reading for about forty minutes and I am already on sixty three. How could I have not loved this book two years a go? Okay, I was slightly younger, being seventeen, but I had read much heavier books than this, like Tolkien, Stephen King, Ian McEwan, or Charles Dickens, even Shakespeare. The writing style is clever, being easy and quick to read but not too draining on description, nor relying on simple chatter to get the story along. The story is quirky, and quick paced. The characters are solid and lovable, yet in that mist of knowing that no one is like them because it is impossible to know of anyone like them. You can relate to them but they still have that magic surrounding them.
I know this is a random post, but you will see in the future posts why this post is needed. Even if it does seem like a random babble of words flowing on your screen with a time stamp of 2:00am in the morning (I am an insomniac so I am up at the most unusual hours). I get the majority of my inspiration from books or music, and I have begun to believe that I would only find inspiration in my music. But now, I have fallen back in love with books and reading, which has boosted my inspiration meter.
Now, off to tackle 3ds max, and let it taunt me some more, before I conquer it and hopefully make a realistic old mill.
Also Artemis Fowl has been released as a Graphic novel, guess what I will be requesting when I get some cash in from my job at Christmas!
P.s. I need more images on my blog. Wall of texts are not attractive.
Listening to: Jack Johnson
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Merging topics
To become more comfortable with blogger, and using this blog often (I have other personal ones and a picture blog), I am going to merge the other areas of my course in to this blog as well. My other two areas include 3d, which contains working on 3ds Max and creating new models on there, as well as 2d which is drawing from life as well as digital painting.
For starters, this project for my 3d area is to create a house in 3ds Max. The house should be an old but an interesting building, and it would be ideal if I could get reference images from all sides. I struggle a lot with the 3d side, and for the last few weeks I have been battling it out whether to do a church or this pink house in Leicester. Anyway, I went home this weekend to relax, get my head together and to get advice from my old tutor. Whilst spending time with my dog, I stumbled across the old mill, which then resulted me in to cutting my poor dog's walk short and grabbing my camera whilst day light was still around. Since I was a child, this mill fascinated me due to it apparently being haunted, and the ghosts, and the myths and lies that surround the place with the deaths. Now, I'm fascinated by the history of it, and how it has evolved as a building.
Even better, I could get the reference images from all sides, and I know the owners of it reasonably well as I live in a small spit of a village. They were understanding that I wanted to take a hundred plus pictures of their house for reference, as the entire village knows I am an art student.
Here are some pictures of the house:
Now look at it. I mean really look at it. It is just a plain building. But this one building has seen more history than anyone else on this earth, and has experienced more seasons than we ever will in our lifetime. There's something kind of magical about it.
It also contains a kind of spooky atmosphere to it. If I told you that the little old lady that lived in this house was violently stabbed to death by her young jealous son, you would not be so surprised that it had happened in this house. Yes, it has had quite a number of deaths within, especially of the old woman looking out the window in the top front right window who peers out across the fields opposite. In my lifetime, there had only been a suicide of a young man in the kitchen, and people have claimed to still see his body hanging there in the kitchen. The main ghostly activity that I have seen is seen the lights being switched on then off again whilst no one has occupied it. It has got a bloody history behind it. However, the day and layout helped this atmosphere come across in the images, such as the bare stick tree outside the front, as I did take these images, this weekend, on a cold but dry day so it works.
My house in the village is over three hundred years old, so this old mill must exceed my house's life by many years. So it has ticked the old check box on the brief. The interesting side, as I have already outlined in my previous paragraphs, explains why I find it so interesting and why I believe it fits the criteria. Where else am I going to find a building that has such a colourful history?
From my point of view, as in looking at it from a 3d angle, the house is a simple straight structure, without many details in the architecture. It was not built to be fancy, but to be stable and strong for workers. The texture of the building is repetitive as it is just stone bricks and black tiles. The windows are extremely similar to one another and nothing at the minute seems too difficult. Overall, I do not think this will exceed the tri limit and it will make a great low poly count house.
So readers, this is my house that I shall be modeling for my lovely tutor Heather on my course. Let the fun times roll.
(I took these pictures 10th of November, after spending a week looking at random buildings in Leicester that I kept finding fault with cause they were not interesting enough or not old enough.)
Listening to: You Me At Six
For starters, this project for my 3d area is to create a house in 3ds Max. The house should be an old but an interesting building, and it would be ideal if I could get reference images from all sides. I struggle a lot with the 3d side, and for the last few weeks I have been battling it out whether to do a church or this pink house in Leicester. Anyway, I went home this weekend to relax, get my head together and to get advice from my old tutor. Whilst spending time with my dog, I stumbled across the old mill, which then resulted me in to cutting my poor dog's walk short and grabbing my camera whilst day light was still around. Since I was a child, this mill fascinated me due to it apparently being haunted, and the ghosts, and the myths and lies that surround the place with the deaths. Now, I'm fascinated by the history of it, and how it has evolved as a building.
Even better, I could get the reference images from all sides, and I know the owners of it reasonably well as I live in a small spit of a village. They were understanding that I wanted to take a hundred plus pictures of their house for reference, as the entire village knows I am an art student.
Here are some pictures of the house:
Now look at it. I mean really look at it. It is just a plain building. But this one building has seen more history than anyone else on this earth, and has experienced more seasons than we ever will in our lifetime. There's something kind of magical about it.
It also contains a kind of spooky atmosphere to it. If I told you that the little old lady that lived in this house was violently stabbed to death by her young jealous son, you would not be so surprised that it had happened in this house. Yes, it has had quite a number of deaths within, especially of the old woman looking out the window in the top front right window who peers out across the fields opposite. In my lifetime, there had only been a suicide of a young man in the kitchen, and people have claimed to still see his body hanging there in the kitchen. The main ghostly activity that I have seen is seen the lights being switched on then off again whilst no one has occupied it. It has got a bloody history behind it. However, the day and layout helped this atmosphere come across in the images, such as the bare stick tree outside the front, as I did take these images, this weekend, on a cold but dry day so it works.
My house in the village is over three hundred years old, so this old mill must exceed my house's life by many years. So it has ticked the old check box on the brief. The interesting side, as I have already outlined in my previous paragraphs, explains why I find it so interesting and why I believe it fits the criteria. Where else am I going to find a building that has such a colourful history?
From my point of view, as in looking at it from a 3d angle, the house is a simple straight structure, without many details in the architecture. It was not built to be fancy, but to be stable and strong for workers. The texture of the building is repetitive as it is just stone bricks and black tiles. The windows are extremely similar to one another and nothing at the minute seems too difficult. Overall, I do not think this will exceed the tri limit and it will make a great low poly count house.
So readers, this is my house that I shall be modeling for my lovely tutor Heather on my course. Let the fun times roll.
(I took these pictures 10th of November, after spending a week looking at random buildings in Leicester that I kept finding fault with cause they were not interesting enough or not old enough.)
Listening to: You Me At Six
Monday 14 November 2011
The history of video games 2001-2010
Now we are merging in to the decade which contains the most war we have seen so far. After the attack on 9/11, the country has become obsessed with terrorists like nothing before, and some games understand that there is nothing more satisfying to some people than to blow these terrorists up on video games. Aliens and zombies just do not cut it for some people.
Looking at video games, we have sega withdraw from the competition of consoles, with their sega dreamcast being their last console, however they stay in the market by still being a publisher (mainly for sonic). This was a down fall as Sega was going strongly and it seemed to have withdraw from the competition like Atari did. Also, Sega Megadrive was my first console and it introduced me to Sonic, so a lot of loyalty lies there with Sega.
The gamecube was released, which opened up the same games being remade, such as Mario and Zelda. But the Supersmash bros melee was one of the biggest sellers, which shows people like the repetition of game series and how loyal they can become to one certain game series more so than to just one offs.
The biggest seller for this decade, has obviously got to be Sony's playstation 2. However, the Xbox, did open up Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil 4 and Soul caliber, which changed the game art industry similar to how Zelda: Ocarina of Time did. It changed the style and the influence.
From many different sides the industry has evolved. Like the engines that games are being played on, the artwork, the graphics, and the money side of it. The original Call Of Duty was made and played on an Quake Engine, whereas Call Of Duty 4 is now played on the IW Engine. The artwork has changed as I have mentioned previously, with Resident Evil 4. The money, due to pirating which has drained a lot of people and companies of their resources, hits the industry as hard as it does the music industry. Sony, which does not just relies on game sales, reported that they have lost $3.2 billion dollars this year on 31/3/2011.
I believe the main issue of this decade for the video game industry, is that it has narrowed it down to the big three. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft are battling it out to see who has the biggest network of hardcore, and casual gamers, whilst Nintendo is focused more upon the family, and friend gaming.
Looking at video games, we have sega withdraw from the competition of consoles, with their sega dreamcast being their last console, however they stay in the market by still being a publisher (mainly for sonic). This was a down fall as Sega was going strongly and it seemed to have withdraw from the competition like Atari did. Also, Sega Megadrive was my first console and it introduced me to Sonic, so a lot of loyalty lies there with Sega.
The gamecube was released, which opened up the same games being remade, such as Mario and Zelda. But the Supersmash bros melee was one of the biggest sellers, which shows people like the repetition of game series and how loyal they can become to one certain game series more so than to just one offs.
The biggest seller for this decade, has obviously got to be Sony's playstation 2. However, the Xbox, did open up Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil 4 and Soul caliber, which changed the game art industry similar to how Zelda: Ocarina of Time did. It changed the style and the influence.
From many different sides the industry has evolved. Like the engines that games are being played on, the artwork, the graphics, and the money side of it. The original Call Of Duty was made and played on an Quake Engine, whereas Call Of Duty 4 is now played on the IW Engine. The artwork has changed as I have mentioned previously, with Resident Evil 4. The money, due to pirating which has drained a lot of people and companies of their resources, hits the industry as hard as it does the music industry. Sony, which does not just relies on game sales, reported that they have lost $3.2 billion dollars this year on 31/3/2011.
I believe the main issue of this decade for the video game industry, is that it has narrowed it down to the big three. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft are battling it out to see who has the biggest network of hardcore, and casual gamers, whilst Nintendo is focused more upon the family, and friend gaming.
Wednesday 26 October 2011
The history of video games 1990
Now we venture on my childhood years. Everyone immediately links 1990s to the entire grunge scene, like the 60's and hippies, and the 70s with the short lived punk years. However, the video game industry has developed fast and strong during this period. This is when it's hitting a lot of people and getting them addicted, hard and heavy, like a virus.
Let's start this somewhat time line off with neo-geo in 1990. However, the next year the commodore cdtv was released. This was when the industry starting putting their faith more in to cds, and letting cds become the future due to the cds having such a massive storage (at the time anyway).
Now in 1992, two amazing things came along, one was me, and the second was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System aka SNES. I adore the history of Nintendo, it's so colourful and strong. I did so much history research on this company when I was doing my fmp at college. This was a turning point, cause this period became the decline of arcades and the rise of handhelds, especially the gameboy. Like I touched upon on my last post, the industry has changed to suit it's audience, who wants these amazing box of wonders in their own homes and not arcade. Also, Sonic the Hedgehog was released for the Sega.
A sad point in 1993, as Atari releases their last console before going broke, the mother who had nurtured and sculpt video games came to a final rest. Atari jaguar was the last console. However, they are not forgotten, not by a long a shot, but it shows how something as powerful and influential as Atari can come to a rest in an industry as this. It shows that everyone is striking to survive and be as successful as they possibly can in this industry, with there being no limit of how much success is too successful.
The third biggest company at the moment jumped the bandwagon, and came out with the Playstation in 1994. Sony has joined the video game race, and they have put up quite a good fight so far, considering I am a Sony slave and loyal fan. However, it had the Sega Saturn to rival it, but to be honest, it's not as good as the mega drive.
Nintendo came flowing back with their newest console in 1996, the Nintendo 64 (yes, mine is bright orange and I do have the Pokemon and Zelda games for it, but golden eye, not yet, which came a year later after the console...), which was a massive hit. During this year, Resident evil was also born and spread in to the world, creating the survival horror genre. It's amazing how one game can create an entire genre in the industry just like that, and create an new opening in the market which the audience is hooked upon.
The most wanted Zelda game came to everyone's hands in 1998, with the Ocarina of Time. The entire game got a new art make over which created a new style that influenced a lot of other games and style (big eyes, point ears, cartoony faces that does not show much expression nor hard to draw really, does this remind you of any other style of art?), but it gave the games a new style that a lot of people enjoyed. It kept the audience happy, and the amount of sales of this one game can vouch for that. The dreamcast was released, which I wasn't too keen of, but it was a standing point. Atari already dropped out of the race, and Sega joined them by having this as their final console, due to the rival of the Playstation 2.
In the 2000, we have the playstation 2 released. As well as the rise of World of Warcraft which made the rise of online multi-player gaming grabs the attention of the video game industry's eye, and where they decide to go next with their goals. That's all for the 1990s folks.
The industry has evolved and development viciously the last couple of decades, so it seems like they have touched upon a lot of areas and achieve it, like hand held and the different remotes so it seems like you're actually playing golf. However, from the top of my head, they can explore more in to voice control (playing with your voice), 3D is becoming bigger especially with TVs, actually putting the gamer in to the game, and making online gaming bigger and get more people involved. Just a few suggestions, but the industry is under a lot of pressure to succeed, and to serve the goods of something new and exciting to keep the audience keen.
A lot of people I know from back home go by the phrase "originality is dead", and I would like to disagree. Mainly because they have no original thoughts or ideas themselves and follows the crowd loyally but because they are not part of an industry that is anything like game art, and they give up too easily. I feel like going in to this industry, I will have to be tackling that phrase a lot, and proving to everyone that originality is not dead, and it is still striving.
Currently listening to: Nirvana.
Let's start this somewhat time line off with neo-geo in 1990. However, the next year the commodore cdtv was released. This was when the industry starting putting their faith more in to cds, and letting cds become the future due to the cds having such a massive storage (at the time anyway).
Now in 1992, two amazing things came along, one was me, and the second was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System aka SNES. I adore the history of Nintendo, it's so colourful and strong. I did so much history research on this company when I was doing my fmp at college. This was a turning point, cause this period became the decline of arcades and the rise of handhelds, especially the gameboy. Like I touched upon on my last post, the industry has changed to suit it's audience, who wants these amazing box of wonders in their own homes and not arcade. Also, Sonic the Hedgehog was released for the Sega.
A sad point in 1993, as Atari releases their last console before going broke, the mother who had nurtured and sculpt video games came to a final rest. Atari jaguar was the last console. However, they are not forgotten, not by a long a shot, but it shows how something as powerful and influential as Atari can come to a rest in an industry as this. It shows that everyone is striking to survive and be as successful as they possibly can in this industry, with there being no limit of how much success is too successful.
The third biggest company at the moment jumped the bandwagon, and came out with the Playstation in 1994. Sony has joined the video game race, and they have put up quite a good fight so far, considering I am a Sony slave and loyal fan. However, it had the Sega Saturn to rival it, but to be honest, it's not as good as the mega drive.
Nintendo came flowing back with their newest console in 1996, the Nintendo 64 (yes, mine is bright orange and I do have the Pokemon and Zelda games for it, but golden eye, not yet, which came a year later after the console...), which was a massive hit. During this year, Resident evil was also born and spread in to the world, creating the survival horror genre. It's amazing how one game can create an entire genre in the industry just like that, and create an new opening in the market which the audience is hooked upon.
The most wanted Zelda game came to everyone's hands in 1998, with the Ocarina of Time. The entire game got a new art make over which created a new style that influenced a lot of other games and style (big eyes, point ears, cartoony faces that does not show much expression nor hard to draw really, does this remind you of any other style of art?), but it gave the games a new style that a lot of people enjoyed. It kept the audience happy, and the amount of sales of this one game can vouch for that. The dreamcast was released, which I wasn't too keen of, but it was a standing point. Atari already dropped out of the race, and Sega joined them by having this as their final console, due to the rival of the Playstation 2.
In the 2000, we have the playstation 2 released. As well as the rise of World of Warcraft which made the rise of online multi-player gaming grabs the attention of the video game industry's eye, and where they decide to go next with their goals. That's all for the 1990s folks.
The industry has evolved and development viciously the last couple of decades, so it seems like they have touched upon a lot of areas and achieve it, like hand held and the different remotes so it seems like you're actually playing golf. However, from the top of my head, they can explore more in to voice control (playing with your voice), 3D is becoming bigger especially with TVs, actually putting the gamer in to the game, and making online gaming bigger and get more people involved. Just a few suggestions, but the industry is under a lot of pressure to succeed, and to serve the goods of something new and exciting to keep the audience keen.
A lot of people I know from back home go by the phrase "originality is dead", and I would like to disagree. Mainly because they have no original thoughts or ideas themselves and follows the crowd loyally but because they are not part of an industry that is anything like game art, and they give up too easily. I feel like going in to this industry, I will have to be tackling that phrase a lot, and proving to everyone that originality is not dead, and it is still striving.
Currently listening to: Nirvana.
Tuesday 25 October 2011
History of Video games 1980-1990
Here comes one of the best periods of all time, especially for music. I get a lot of my inspiration from music, discovering it but rediscovering old and lost loves. I work constantly to music so this is a happy blog entry from me. Although you could have guessed that as I put what I am currently listening to on the bottom of my posts each time (expect a lot of repeats of bands). However, history always makes me happy, so the both combined is excellent.
During this time, a lot of things happened, like the cold war, the miners strike, and the tories with the riots (sound familiar right? Not like it happened recently or anything with the current tories being in power, oh wait?). But video games took off and evolved rapidly from arcades to home gaming and pcs. They became much more personal to everyone.
Let's start right at the beginning, starting off with atari.
In 1982, the lovely atari 5200 was launched, and for me personally, I felt that atari was the beginning of the video games and the development within it. A year later, we got Nintendo on the scene, and they had the unfortunate luck of naming it the Nintendo femicom which sound like a female product. But Nintendo has been around since 1889, so they weren't likely to change their name as they have become probably fond of it by then.
Sega launched their Sega master in 1986, and two years after that, they launched their famous Sega genesis (which I have at home, with Sonic, and Castle of Illusion, the amount of abuse I shouted at Mickey Mouse from a young age is amazing for my vocab, especially as I was not savvy with the language when I was younger as I am now).
1989 was an important year, my brother was born, (who held a lot of influence over me and my games), as well as the Berlin Wall coming down on November 9th. However, the gameboy was released. The original grey brick which opens up the entire world to one addictive game: tetris. Yes, I did have it, and I still have my original one, as well as every generation of gameboy known in history, except the 3DS (I only have room for one 3DS in my life, and that's 3DS Max).
Lastly, in 1990, the amstrad gx4000, which sounds more like a bike and is a mouthful, was launched.
This was a short period, despite like my last blog entry which had everything coming out year after year. But this was when gaming became much more personal to homes. Before hand it was for work and office use (the development of computers), whereas now the market decided to target homes for their sales. From cracking german codes, to becoming a blue hedgehog collecting rings, I have to say it has gone from one extreme to another, from being a life or death situation to a "nah I've got another 5 lives left till it's game over" or "where are my damn rings?".
The most significant developments during this time period in my opinion was not the technology exactly, but how it's audience had changed, as well as purpose. An industry strives on it's audience and market, and if it's audience changes then so does the industry to suit the audience, so it can survive. Less companies became interested in video games, and more the general public, from arcades to wanting it in their households. Video games became a new industry, away from the computer industry, with the sole purpose of entertaining. It became the computer industry's little brother which plays pranks, but seemed to be as much in high demand from the public than computers were, both growing up together and evolving in different separate ways but still having some of the same connections, and the same beginning.
Another significant point, was the rise of the war between the companies. I do not think that it had much impact on the industry up until when the three major ones hit later in the 2000s. However, it was the beginning and start of the competition between the companies, and the sales. Which made them more determined to out do the other one in graphics, games, sales, audience and technology.
Currently listening to: Rage Against The Machine.
During this time, a lot of things happened, like the cold war, the miners strike, and the tories with the riots (sound familiar right? Not like it happened recently or anything with the current tories being in power, oh wait?). But video games took off and evolved rapidly from arcades to home gaming and pcs. They became much more personal to everyone.
Let's start right at the beginning, starting off with atari.
In 1982, the lovely atari 5200 was launched, and for me personally, I felt that atari was the beginning of the video games and the development within it. A year later, we got Nintendo on the scene, and they had the unfortunate luck of naming it the Nintendo femicom which sound like a female product. But Nintendo has been around since 1889, so they weren't likely to change their name as they have become probably fond of it by then.
Sega launched their Sega master in 1986, and two years after that, they launched their famous Sega genesis (which I have at home, with Sonic, and Castle of Illusion, the amount of abuse I shouted at Mickey Mouse from a young age is amazing for my vocab, especially as I was not savvy with the language when I was younger as I am now).
1989 was an important year, my brother was born, (who held a lot of influence over me and my games), as well as the Berlin Wall coming down on November 9th. However, the gameboy was released. The original grey brick which opens up the entire world to one addictive game: tetris. Yes, I did have it, and I still have my original one, as well as every generation of gameboy known in history, except the 3DS (I only have room for one 3DS in my life, and that's 3DS Max).
Lastly, in 1990, the amstrad gx4000, which sounds more like a bike and is a mouthful, was launched.
This was a short period, despite like my last blog entry which had everything coming out year after year. But this was when gaming became much more personal to homes. Before hand it was for work and office use (the development of computers), whereas now the market decided to target homes for their sales. From cracking german codes, to becoming a blue hedgehog collecting rings, I have to say it has gone from one extreme to another, from being a life or death situation to a "nah I've got another 5 lives left till it's game over" or "where are my damn rings?".
The most significant developments during this time period in my opinion was not the technology exactly, but how it's audience had changed, as well as purpose. An industry strives on it's audience and market, and if it's audience changes then so does the industry to suit the audience, so it can survive. Less companies became interested in video games, and more the general public, from arcades to wanting it in their households. Video games became a new industry, away from the computer industry, with the sole purpose of entertaining. It became the computer industry's little brother which plays pranks, but seemed to be as much in high demand from the public than computers were, both growing up together and evolving in different separate ways but still having some of the same connections, and the same beginning.
Another significant point, was the rise of the war between the companies. I do not think that it had much impact on the industry up until when the three major ones hit later in the 2000s. However, it was the beginning and start of the competition between the companies, and the sales. Which made them more determined to out do the other one in graphics, games, sales, audience and technology.
Currently listening to: Rage Against The Machine.
Monday 24 October 2011
The history of computers 1840s-1980
Quite a massive chunk of history that I shall be covering in this entry. However, I will be touching on the topics quite lightly and in a quick manner. For my course, I will be using computers for half the time, and as it's linked to video games, I thought it was best to start from the very beginning. Computers played a big role in the development of video games, and it snowballed from there, so I want to grasp a better understanding of the history. However, like the entire of history, everything is biased and written by the winner's point of view, so I have gathered my sources together to work out which part came when and in which order (thanks to my lecturer for the helpful links as well).
Let's start from the beginning, with a wonderful invention in 1849. It was called Difference Engine. Which is basically a mechanical calculator, and most likely the biggest calculator still to date. However, it was automatic which got the ball slowly rolling. It had the foundations of the working of a computer, and it could be reprogrammed. Seemed like an amazing calculator, and it still is extremely shiny today.
The picture displays the one, the original, in London's Science Museum. I told you it's still shiny.
In 1939, the first HP came to our eyes, it was a box that made noise. However it was the first HP to be invented and they will stay with us for many more years to come. In 1940, the CNC typewriter was produced. This showed the idea of monitors and the keypad which is the basic layout of a computer today.
One of the main breakthroughs were 1943, whilst the men went to fight for the country with their guns and helmets, the women were left at home to cover for them. They created collosus, which was a code breaker for the German enigma code. A lot of women worked on the early computers, but the men like to take the credit.
IBM decided to come on to the scene, with style in 1948. They decided to give the computer a chance to be stylish, and it somewhat worked from that I guess. The Lions invented the Leo in 1951, which was an actual stock control, yes as well as creating delicious treats, they invented this. In the same year, the univac was invented which could store and retrieve data.
The year 1960 was a turning point, the dec pdp - II was invented which displayed a monitor, and the keyboard. It was also small, and able to be placed in offices. Pong also came stumbling along in this year too. Both a massive turning point in this decade, as Pong is classed as the original video game, but that's quite debatable.
The qwerty keyboard and space bar came on to the scene in 1972 on a tv typewriter. The first paint program was created, called super paint. Up until this point, computers were mainly homed on people who have certain skills, like stock taking, or data inputting, the mathematical side of it. This program was the mother to Photoshop and Coral painter. It was the first computer directed to the art subject field. In 1974, the mouse came on to the scene. Two years after that, the very first apple came on to the scene, where it looks pretty but it's not all there. Two more years later, the commodore pet was created, where multiple programs could run at once.
Now the turning point for video games, the atari vcs prototype was born. The very first video game console, with an input for a joystick. Plus, it could play more than one game. A bit humdrum compared to today's technology, but back then, it was a strong powerful turning point. The atari 2600 was born and shelved, which had little cartridges.
Space invaders became hot and mainstream in 1980, which I shall then leave this post on. So in a few decades, the computer had become developed fiercely, and the creators had understood that this is where the future is at. They tried to push the limits with their technology, and to make the entire computer system more compact. However, it had branched out from just mathematics to the design field and to the entertainment field for family fun and homework repellent for the children.
Now, a lot of technology has developed throughout this time period. The computer started off as having a solo purpose, used for businesses. The people who had money to invest, and spend on the development of computers was the big businesses or the government, so obviously, they knew what they wanted to achieve with this technology. Being a little fat plumber going to the wrong castle again to rescue the princess was not what they were concerned about whilst we were being bombed in the blitz. However, these foundations were strong, and everything is quite significate. If it wasn't, then we would not be at the stage we are at now. Before being able to use anything for fun, you have to understand the concept and context and the foundations of it (personal experience, 3ds max, which at the moment, is a horrible piece of software). I think the arcades was one of the bigger turning points, because it got the industry noticed, and how companies understood that people want these games at home, and it gave them a goal to work towards (to make money) which helped developed the technology of video games.
Currently listening to: Lights.
The picture displays the one, the original, in London's Science Museum. I told you it's still shiny.
In 1939, the first HP came to our eyes, it was a box that made noise. However it was the first HP to be invented and they will stay with us for many more years to come. In 1940, the CNC typewriter was produced. This showed the idea of monitors and the keypad which is the basic layout of a computer today.
One of the main breakthroughs were 1943, whilst the men went to fight for the country with their guns and helmets, the women were left at home to cover for them. They created collosus, which was a code breaker for the German enigma code. A lot of women worked on the early computers, but the men like to take the credit.
IBM decided to come on to the scene, with style in 1948. They decided to give the computer a chance to be stylish, and it somewhat worked from that I guess. The Lions invented the Leo in 1951, which was an actual stock control, yes as well as creating delicious treats, they invented this. In the same year, the univac was invented which could store and retrieve data.
The year 1960 was a turning point, the dec pdp - II was invented which displayed a monitor, and the keyboard. It was also small, and able to be placed in offices. Pong also came stumbling along in this year too. Both a massive turning point in this decade, as Pong is classed as the original video game, but that's quite debatable.
The qwerty keyboard and space bar came on to the scene in 1972 on a tv typewriter. The first paint program was created, called super paint. Up until this point, computers were mainly homed on people who have certain skills, like stock taking, or data inputting, the mathematical side of it. This program was the mother to Photoshop and Coral painter. It was the first computer directed to the art subject field. In 1974, the mouse came on to the scene. Two years after that, the very first apple came on to the scene, where it looks pretty but it's not all there. Two more years later, the commodore pet was created, where multiple programs could run at once.
Now the turning point for video games, the atari vcs prototype was born. The very first video game console, with an input for a joystick. Plus, it could play more than one game. A bit humdrum compared to today's technology, but back then, it was a strong powerful turning point. The atari 2600 was born and shelved, which had little cartridges.
Now, a lot of technology has developed throughout this time period. The computer started off as having a solo purpose, used for businesses. The people who had money to invest, and spend on the development of computers was the big businesses or the government, so obviously, they knew what they wanted to achieve with this technology. Being a little fat plumber going to the wrong castle again to rescue the princess was not what they were concerned about whilst we were being bombed in the blitz. However, these foundations were strong, and everything is quite significate. If it wasn't, then we would not be at the stage we are at now. Before being able to use anything for fun, you have to understand the concept and context and the foundations of it (personal experience, 3ds max, which at the moment, is a horrible piece of software). I think the arcades was one of the bigger turning points, because it got the industry noticed, and how companies understood that people want these games at home, and it gave them a goal to work towards (to make money) which helped developed the technology of video games.
Currently listening to: Lights.
Monday 10 October 2011
My name is Kendall Mcewan (yes, as in the mintcake and the place but spelt differently, and yes it's my first name not my last name, and yes it is spelt correctly and it can be spelt many variations, and yes, this joke has been done to death, if you wish to catch me off guard mention the Kendall battery, piercing needles or tobacco) and yes, my parents liked mintcake so much that they called me after it. My name gets a lot of talk about it.
I started off in a little spit of a village near the lovely land of Loughborough. I went through all the boring schools till I reached Burton college a few years a go. I studied Art and Design as a btec national diploma, and I specialised in Graphics as I've been naturally good at it since the beginning of GCSE. I got introduced to this course by my tutor Rich, we then had a £10 bet on if I liked the place or not, as it was so close to home I had already made judgement of it. However, I arrived and I was impressed which made it my first choice and I stood corrected. That £10 I gave my tutor went on coffee.
I aim quite high, cause I don't really know any other way to aim to be honest. I wish to get the top grade possibly on this course, and my dream job is like everyone else's on this course, a concept artist. However, I would happily settle for character designer, or creature designer. It's quite standard to understand the skills needed to obtain this job, obviously knowing and understanding the software and being able to draw and make everything come alive and tell a story within a single illustration. A good grasp on proportions and anatomy is needed as well. Basically, all I need is a lot of time spent on my skills to develop them further so they are at a much higher professional standard than they are now.
I know I came off as quite sarcastic in this, but I really did not mean to so I apologise for it now. I'm not that sarcastic, I just highly dislike talking about myself on a brand new blog where there is nothing else for people to grasp what my personality is like. Here have a smiley face for actually reading this :) have two actually :)
Currently listening to: Example.
I always do a currently listening to in my blogs cause it makes the entire blog seem a lot more personal if my music tastes are involved in such a way. Also, you can see where I get some of my inspiration from, or my influences.
I started off in a little spit of a village near the lovely land of Loughborough. I went through all the boring schools till I reached Burton college a few years a go. I studied Art and Design as a btec national diploma, and I specialised in Graphics as I've been naturally good at it since the beginning of GCSE. I got introduced to this course by my tutor Rich, we then had a £10 bet on if I liked the place or not, as it was so close to home I had already made judgement of it. However, I arrived and I was impressed which made it my first choice and I stood corrected. That £10 I gave my tutor went on coffee.
I aim quite high, cause I don't really know any other way to aim to be honest. I wish to get the top grade possibly on this course, and my dream job is like everyone else's on this course, a concept artist. However, I would happily settle for character designer, or creature designer. It's quite standard to understand the skills needed to obtain this job, obviously knowing and understanding the software and being able to draw and make everything come alive and tell a story within a single illustration. A good grasp on proportions and anatomy is needed as well. Basically, all I need is a lot of time spent on my skills to develop them further so they are at a much higher professional standard than they are now.
I know I came off as quite sarcastic in this, but I really did not mean to so I apologise for it now. I'm not that sarcastic, I just highly dislike talking about myself on a brand new blog where there is nothing else for people to grasp what my personality is like. Here have a smiley face for actually reading this :) have two actually :)
Currently listening to: Example.
I always do a currently listening to in my blogs cause it makes the entire blog seem a lot more personal if my music tastes are involved in such a way. Also, you can see where I get some of my inspiration from, or my influences.
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