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
Saturday 26 November 2011
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.
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