Sorry for the lack of updates recently; I have started university properly now (second year) and been quite busy learning all kinds of new things, especially in 3d studio Max.
One major update in my life is that a Mod Club/Society has been set up at university, where we make game engine modifications to create games! The club has been divided into 2 (as about 60 people showed up!) and so we're kinda competing against each other to have the best 'mod'. I believe we're going to be making an Unreal Engine 3 mod, or at least I hope we are.. would be nice to use a different engine for a change. I am kind of stuck between the level design/animation/scripting role - scripting is something I'd really love to learn right now as its programming but not quite coding (so its programming with everything 'set up' for you ready to use.. if that makes sense). Scripting is used to actually modify the game engine to change the way you will play your game. So for example, in Source all the games are first person. However you can use scripting to change the game you're making to third person. That's just an example, there's many different things you can use scripting for, and it's a good thing to have on you're CV if you're wanting to be a games designer. I am looking at tutorials right now, and it seems there's alot of them for Aurora (the Neverwinter Nights engine) which coincidentally - I already have. So when I get home they're probably the first tutorials that I am going to go through for scripting. Also <3 NWN!
Our team for mod club needed a name. So we kinda went with 'Four Girls One Club' seeing as there is 4 girls in total in our team and it's just a bit of fun really. Naturally won't be writing that name on our CVs...
Terragen - not found a use for this (for me) yet but I'm sure will come in handy sometime soon for level design possibly?! Who knows. Its a really simple to use program that uses procedural terrain generation to create these amazing landscapes which you can then tweak to have water in certain areas, snowy mountains, fog, cloud cover.. basically anything environmental you can control. I am no expert on this.. so maybe I will shut up.. :D
I'm thinking on using this blog as a development aid for our Unreal 3 mod. Wednesday is our next meeting so may have to post then.
For now; I have character development to do for our OTHER game (done in Source, an actual uni assignment though) for a horse called Butterscotch.. won't go into much detail right now. Lets just say the game is My Little Pony crossed with Unreal. Then I have Computer Animation where I am creating a 20 second animation of a War of the Worlds tripod blowing down some buildings in a town, Facial modelling and Character Rigging (yes alot of 3d studio max, all useful though!)
Monday, 13 October 2008
Monday, 22 September 2008
An Abundance of Updates f(x) = x + 1
Hello reader!
University hath cometh, as has university loan. Up til now I was a worthless wench, scrounging off her parents and boyfriend occassionally. Today I have managed to pay them back some of what I owed. And now comes the time when I can start buying all my books and games etc that will be required for university!
One thing I really want to get is a Wacom tablet.. or any decent graphics tablet. I have no idea which is the best tbh, I am guessing Wacom? For hardware I generally visit ebuyer.com as it's a very cheap site for peripherals and hardware in general. After viewing some tablets I came across this! Its an innovative mouse that allows you to apply pressure, tilt, rotate and pan when working in 3d worlds (such as Google Sketchup (will talk more about that program in a later update), 3ds max, etc.)
It's like £40 so I'm considering buying it (providing I get a job) and giving a little review maybe? I think it would be handy considering I work alot in 3d environments.
Back to the tablets.. There's a company called Trust Design who make fairly smallish ones for really cheap (like around £30) who actually have some really good reviews and the particular product I am looking at has 5 stars. One says,
"Compared to the Wacom models this graphics tablet does feel cheap, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it works well with the graphics programs that I use and is easy to adapt to.
Obviously I would prefer where possible to use my Wacom, but this is cute, light and portable, and while it lacks most of the tool tweaking, it is perfectly usable."
So mebbe I will give it a shot. I'm no professional.. I just need something to start out with, as I have never used one before.
I also finished reading An Abundance of Katherine's. It's an easy and interesting read and I learnt alot of mathematics in the process. The basic synopsis is it's about a boy prodigy called Colin who has dated 19 girls in his lifetime so far all called Katherine. And he is dumped by every single one of them. After being dumped by a Katherine he was dating for over a year he escapes on a road trip with his friend where he attempts to work a formula based on age, popularity, attractiveness etc. in order to predict whether the relationship will end and whether the dumping will be done by boy or girl. Its really witty and enlightening and special, I think. Definately worth reading as its quite a quick one, teaches you things you never knew and gives you some giggles.
Now I am reading Mass Effect: Ascension which Alan lent me (as we're both kind of obsessed with Mass Effect) and Stardust by Neil Gaimon, which I am LOVING.
University hath cometh, as has university loan. Up til now I was a worthless wench, scrounging off her parents and boyfriend occassionally. Today I have managed to pay them back some of what I owed. And now comes the time when I can start buying all my books and games etc that will be required for university!
One thing I really want to get is a Wacom tablet.. or any decent graphics tablet. I have no idea which is the best tbh, I am guessing Wacom? For hardware I generally visit ebuyer.com as it's a very cheap site for peripherals and hardware in general. After viewing some tablets I came across this! Its an innovative mouse that allows you to apply pressure, tilt, rotate and pan when working in 3d worlds (such as Google Sketchup (will talk more about that program in a later update), 3ds max, etc.)
It's like £40 so I'm considering buying it (providing I get a job) and giving a little review maybe? I think it would be handy considering I work alot in 3d environments.Back to the tablets.. There's a company called Trust Design who make fairly smallish ones for really cheap (like around £30) who actually have some really good reviews and the particular product I am looking at has 5 stars. One says,
"Compared to the Wacom models this graphics tablet does feel cheap, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it works well with the graphics programs that I use and is easy to adapt to.
Obviously I would prefer where possible to use my Wacom, but this is cute, light and portable, and while it lacks most of the tool tweaking, it is perfectly usable."
So mebbe I will give it a shot. I'm no professional.. I just need something to start out with, as I have never used one before.
I also finished reading An Abundance of Katherine's. It's an easy and interesting read and I learnt alot of mathematics in the process. The basic synopsis is it's about a boy prodigy called Colin who has dated 19 girls in his lifetime so far all called Katherine. And he is dumped by every single one of them. After being dumped by a Katherine he was dating for over a year he escapes on a road trip with his friend where he attempts to work a formula based on age, popularity, attractiveness etc. in order to predict whether the relationship will end and whether the dumping will be done by boy or girl. Its really witty and enlightening and special, I think. Definately worth reading as its quite a quick one, teaches you things you never knew and gives you some giggles.
Now I am reading Mass Effect: Ascension which Alan lent me (as we're both kind of obsessed with Mass Effect) and Stardust by Neil Gaimon, which I am LOVING.
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Ulzzang.
Pinc.Stuff's new video opened my eyes (literally?) to something called Ulzzang which seems to be some kind of Korean fad where girls make themselves look as doll-like as possible and take photos in certain poses/positions which are then photoshopped to glory so that they go from this..
YES that is the same girl. She is wearing contacts which make your iris appear much larger, pale face foundation (possibly some kind of white powder), thick eyeliner on the top of her eye, thick white on the bottom water-line, white pigment on her eyelid and brow-bone. She has darkened her eyebrows and extended them slightly/neatened them up, and put pale/pinky lipstick and gloss on. Fake eyelashes also. Then with a fair amount of photoshop and posing you get this! Apparently it helps to say 'Chuuuuuu' when you pose to get a good pout. It is important to pose correctly to make it appear that your eyes are larger, to conceal the 'wide-set' nose and to get a good overall face shape.
Here is my attempt following Pinc.Stuff's tutorial!
To this..
YES that is the same girl. She is wearing contacts which make your iris appear much larger, pale face foundation (possibly some kind of white powder), thick eyeliner on the top of her eye, thick white on the bottom water-line, white pigment on her eyelid and brow-bone. She has darkened her eyebrows and extended them slightly/neatened them up, and put pale/pinky lipstick and gloss on. Fake eyelashes also. Then with a fair amount of photoshop and posing you get this! Apparently it helps to say 'Chuuuuuu' when you pose to get a good pout. It is important to pose correctly to make it appear that your eyes are larger, to conceal the 'wide-set' nose and to get a good overall face shape.Here is my attempt following Pinc.Stuff's tutorial!
I'm not using fake eyelashes, even though I have some, they're not really the right 'style' for this. I wore black eyeliner on top, silver for my water-line and around my eyes and used a jumbo eye-cream stick for highlight at my brow bone, and I used normal foundation as my skin is damn pale anyway. Photoshop is great.. i basically exaggerated the black on top of my eye, as well as the white, lightened the entire image to make my skin appear fairer and blemish-free and also played with colour balance on the shadows (made them darker) and colour balance on the mid-tones (made those darker also). My hair is naturally red, but you can see here it looks almost dark brown to add to the Ulzzang effect! Strike a pose!
Me before .. ;)
Emma.
Me before .. ;)
Emma.
A whole new World.
There's something comforting and profound about blogging whilst lay in bed with your laptop. Theres's something rather uncomfortable about your laptop's keyboard having the inability to type the letter 'e' and struggling to work the space bar.. probably the two most used keys on any qwerty keyboard ever. Tip for today: Character Map is your best friend and worst enemy!
Sooo! I began an RSS feed on a particuarly important site for anyone trying to get into any aspect of the Games Industry - GameCareerGuide.com this site being particuarly impressive because its so diverse and theres always an interesting article to read wrote by various people in the ACTUAL INDUSTRY! Each week there is a new game design challenge posted, and I always find them fun to read over and have a think about them, however you only get 2 days to submit your entry.. but I am making excuses for myself, I really should submit something especially as this Summer I've had no job.. so no excuse at all! Last weeks was 'Satire' and you had to come up with a concept for a game whose ultimate goal was satirical in nature. This is the kind of stuff which really gets you thinking - its why I love the site so much! This weeks challenge is to create a game that will keep players interested in it for four years.. and the catch? It must be a mini-game of the 2012 Olympics. Haaaaaaa!
So I found the link to the forum to see what ideas people had and by doing so, discovered how awesome the forums were too! I learnt alot just by browsing for 15 minutes about the direction my portfolio etc. should be taking if I want to get into level design by people who are already established in the industry. They cover Design, Art, Programming, Sound and Writing. So gogo check it out!
Nothing more to update except I've been pointlessly researching Mayan archeology and religion, and some other Pre-Classic cultures. I know I'm weird, I get fascinated by this stuff. Oh and happy September! University starts in 15 days yarr!
Sooo! I began an RSS feed on a particuarly important site for anyone trying to get into any aspect of the Games Industry - GameCareerGuide.com this site being particuarly impressive because its so diverse and theres always an interesting article to read wrote by various people in the ACTUAL INDUSTRY! Each week there is a new game design challenge posted, and I always find them fun to read over and have a think about them, however you only get 2 days to submit your entry.. but I am making excuses for myself, I really should submit something especially as this Summer I've had no job.. so no excuse at all! Last weeks was 'Satire' and you had to come up with a concept for a game whose ultimate goal was satirical in nature. This is the kind of stuff which really gets you thinking - its why I love the site so much! This weeks challenge is to create a game that will keep players interested in it for four years.. and the catch? It must be a mini-game of the 2012 Olympics. Haaaaaaa!
So I found the link to the forum to see what ideas people had and by doing so, discovered how awesome the forums were too! I learnt alot just by browsing for 15 minutes about the direction my portfolio etc. should be taking if I want to get into level design by people who are already established in the industry. They cover Design, Art, Programming, Sound and Writing. So gogo check it out!
Nothing more to update except I've been pointlessly researching Mayan archeology and religion, and some other Pre-Classic cultures. I know I'm weird, I get fascinated by this stuff. Oh and happy September! University starts in 15 days yarr!
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Dreaming of Warhammer.
Is it odd to be dreaming about an MMORPG that is yet to be released? I'm not even on the Beta!
I can't wait for this game to be released. My destiny is chosen.. literally. I am choosing Chosen. Haha, I crack myself up..
Anyway, there are some great Beta reviews I have been watching on youtube by a guy called br3ntbr0 - should go and check him out. I recommend him purely because he's had alot of experience with MMOs and so he pretty much knows what he's talking about and looking for within an MMO. Although I am a cynic when it comes to reviews, I think we can trust him! His blog can be found here.
CHOSEN RAWR!
I just feel like playing something masculine and powerful for a change.
So, not much else to update. Once Warhammer is released I am definately going to be doing more blogging on that.. for the time being I am catching up on the Lore using wikipedia and such. I have been playing a bit of Phantasy Star Universe and Lost Odyssey for the 360. PSU is an MMO for the 360, but I can't afford to subscribe at the moment so just playing through the single player campaign. It's quite sweet, music is fun, anime style characters and hack and slash elements to it. The controls feel slightly stiff to me for some reason, but I guess I will get used to that.
Lost Odyssey has a beautiful story behind it; classic, magical and quite tragic. The Skill Link ability within the combat element of the game is unique and allows you to be a bit more creative with your characters which is something I love doing the most within RPGs. I think it is important to reach out beyond the box of the typical "tank, spank and heal" structure to truly get what you want from your characters and be initiative. The combat is turn-based but allows you to get more involved physically with the combat with melee characters when you are made to judge how well a melee attack will hit by a 'target-ring' system. When it's the character's turn to give a melee attack a ring appears that you control to make it hit the 'bullseye'. When it hits the bullseye spot on you will get a perfect attack and the attack will hit for a little more than 'Bad' or 'Good'. I usually screw up and only get 'Good' attacks though! Practise makes Perfect eh..
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Trock On!
Thanks to Alex Day who has created a whole new genre of music inspired by Wrock (Wizard Rock (Harry Potter fan-music)) called..
Trock
Trock stands for Time-Lord Rock! Can you guess what kind of songs are played in this genre of music? Doctor Who related songs (as Doctor Who is a time-lord). The movement began the end of July (officially) and it's already attracted loads of Doctor Who fans to the forum which can be found here.
The type of music I've heard so far only hits typical rock (acoustic/electric guitar/drums) but as the genre is still young and though many bands have bloomed in this genre, its still very new. The song lyrics by all the bands are based on situations, relationships, characters and places within the Doctor Who universe. People are coming up with some amazing lyrics all the time and some really great band names inspired by Doctor Who. Here are just a few:
There are many videos of the songs already up on youtube and myspace, so either sign up on the forum and check out the Songs forum or go to youtube and type in 'trock' - should hopefully find all of them (if they're smart enough they would have tagged the videos with 'trock' at least). If you're a Doctor Who fan this will definately be your cup of tea!
As for me, I have my own one man band called Torchwood Institute which I haven't created anything for just yet, a few lyrics here and there but I really need to sit down and have a think where I want to go with it. Torchwood > Doctor Who! Hehe.
Trock
Trock stands for Time-Lord Rock! Can you guess what kind of songs are played in this genre of music? Doctor Who related songs (as Doctor Who is a time-lord). The movement began the end of July (officially) and it's already attracted loads of Doctor Who fans to the forum which can be found here.
The type of music I've heard so far only hits typical rock (acoustic/electric guitar/drums) but as the genre is still young and though many bands have bloomed in this genre, its still very new. The song lyrics by all the bands are based on situations, relationships, characters and places within the Doctor Who universe. People are coming up with some amazing lyrics all the time and some really great band names inspired by Doctor Who. Here are just a few:
- The Bad Wolves
- Chameleon Circuit (the band that started it all..)
- It's a Sonic Screwdriver
- Paradox
- Time and Relative Dimensions in Rock
- The Medusa Cascade
- Companion
- Torchwood Institute
There are many videos of the songs already up on youtube and myspace, so either sign up on the forum and check out the Songs forum or go to youtube and type in 'trock' - should hopefully find all of them (if they're smart enough they would have tagged the videos with 'trock' at least). If you're a Doctor Who fan this will definately be your cup of tea!
As for me, I have my own one man band called Torchwood Institute which I haven't created anything for just yet, a few lyrics here and there but I really need to sit down and have a think where I want to go with it. Torchwood > Doctor Who! Hehe.
Sunday, 10 August 2008
J-Rock.
Something I used to be much more interested in than I am these days. The days when I got excited to think about watching anime when I got home from school/college. This post is a dedication to all the awesome j-rock bands there are out there, and some of my favourite animes. While I wait for my Dad to bugger off to bed so I can watch Matchstick Men :3 It may also spark my motivation to watch some more anime again.
Japanese rock is certainly a genre that is yet to reach the mainstream rock scene - I can see why it's not.. obviously it's in a totally different language, but the style is a mix of nu-wave, pop.. infact you can't really class it.. it just has that 'sound' that you know 'hey! this is a j-rock song!'. The fact they sing in Japanese often helps. I wish it was in the mainstream rock scene though, its always great to dance to, the singers are almost always hot, their voices are awesome and they're usually very talented musicians with great melodics. Some of the best Japanese musicians aren't j-rock, including Yoko Kanno.. but maybe I'll make another post on j-pop/anime soundtrack style stuff another time.
Abingdon Boys School
oo diddly foo! This is a j-rock band that frequents my Winamp playlist with some amazing melodic metal stylee songs such as 'Down To You', 'Lost Reason' (my favourite) and 'Howling'. What makes this band different to other j-rock get ups is they actually sing in English (quite poorly, but kudos for trying.. japanese accent fails at English sadly). There are a couple of songs in Japanese, but the majority is in English. From what I can tell, these boys are fairly youngish and a kind of new band. But nice, go check them out.
L'arc En Ciel
Probably the reason I got into j-rock in the first place. I found out about them a couple of years back I think.. it was Ready Steady Go from the Full Metal Alchemist series, and then after some youtubing I found Stay Away which became my favourite song by them for a while (mainly because of the awesome dancing at the end of the video HAH!)and then after much downloading and listening to how much discography they have (they go back something stupid) I fell in love. L'arc En Ciel have a deep background with many different styles and 'spin offs' such as Hyde's solo album etc. I would say they are my favourite j-rock band. And they do kick-ass concerts, which I badly want to go to.
L'arc En Ciel
Japanese rock is certainly a genre that is yet to reach the mainstream rock scene - I can see why it's not.. obviously it's in a totally different language, but the style is a mix of nu-wave, pop.. infact you can't really class it.. it just has that 'sound' that you know 'hey! this is a j-rock song!'. The fact they sing in Japanese often helps. I wish it was in the mainstream rock scene though, its always great to dance to, the singers are almost always hot, their voices are awesome and they're usually very talented musicians with great melodics. Some of the best Japanese musicians aren't j-rock, including Yoko Kanno.. but maybe I'll make another post on j-pop/anime soundtrack style stuff another time.
Abingdon Boys School
oo diddly foo! This is a j-rock band that frequents my Winamp playlist with some amazing melodic metal stylee songs such as 'Down To You', 'Lost Reason' (my favourite) and 'Howling'. What makes this band different to other j-rock get ups is they actually sing in English (quite poorly, but kudos for trying.. japanese accent fails at English sadly). There are a couple of songs in Japanese, but the majority is in English. From what I can tell, these boys are fairly youngish and a kind of new band. But nice, go check them out.
L'arc En Ciel
Probably the reason I got into j-rock in the first place. I found out about them a couple of years back I think.. it was Ready Steady Go from the Full Metal Alchemist series, and then after some youtubing I found Stay Away which became my favourite song by them for a while (mainly because of the awesome dancing at the end of the video HAH!)and then after much downloading and listening to how much discography they have (they go back something stupid) I fell in love. L'arc En Ciel have a deep background with many different styles and 'spin offs' such as Hyde's solo album etc. I would say they are my favourite j-rock band. And they do kick-ass concerts, which I badly want to go to.
L'arc En CielDir En Grey
Another band with a huge discography, literally huge. I'm inclined to believe this is one of the first j-rock movements with some interesting electro and experimental style music in the early days of their career. I never listened to them properly, I have all their music though. Not exactly my cup of tea to be honest though. However they inspired alot of the music I love, so I have to give them a chance right?
Miyavi
Strange man, extremely talented!
Gackt
I like Gackt - he has some slow songs and some really hardcore songs that are again, great to dance to. Some songs are a little mainstream and others a bit weirder. He has a really cool voice too.
Some others I discovered on Last.fm:
Flow
After listening to a few of their songs, they're not really 'rock' they actually have a really cool soul/jazz/electro sound. I would recommend them for sure, something I could listen to easily when working and bob my head to!
Luna Sea
Luna Sea were one of the major forces in visual rock throughout the 1990s. From what I can hear, I'm a little hit and miss with some of their songs, but dunno maybe you will like it.
Glay
Really nice style similar to the other jrock bands. And seem to have quite a large fan-base and discography!
Will keep on the look out for anymore, and give those last few bands a proper listen. My favourite is still L'arc en Ciel, with a huge range of styles and amazing talent and the best live shows I have ever seen..
Check out youtube/Last.fm for these bands!
Another band with a huge discography, literally huge. I'm inclined to believe this is one of the first j-rock movements with some interesting electro and experimental style music in the early days of their career. I never listened to them properly, I have all their music though. Not exactly my cup of tea to be honest though. However they inspired alot of the music I love, so I have to give them a chance right?
Miyavi
Strange man, extremely talented!
Gackt
I like Gackt - he has some slow songs and some really hardcore songs that are again, great to dance to. Some songs are a little mainstream and others a bit weirder. He has a really cool voice too.
Some others I discovered on Last.fm:
Flow
After listening to a few of their songs, they're not really 'rock' they actually have a really cool soul/jazz/electro sound. I would recommend them for sure, something I could listen to easily when working and bob my head to!
Luna Sea
Luna Sea were one of the major forces in visual rock throughout the 1990s. From what I can hear, I'm a little hit and miss with some of their songs, but dunno maybe you will like it.
Glay
Really nice style similar to the other jrock bands. And seem to have quite a large fan-base and discography!
Will keep on the look out for anymore, and give those last few bands a proper listen. My favourite is still L'arc en Ciel, with a huge range of styles and amazing talent and the best live shows I have ever seen..
Check out youtube/Last.fm for these bands!
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