Thursday, 25 March 2010

The Future Of 3D Gaming?

3D Gaming? well it makes sense and is the obvious rout to go down, however I cant help but think its just a fad and been developed for that cool flavour of the month feel, which is no doubt what is experiencing at the moment and no doubt it will go onto sell millions but is it really that benifitial?

With all these 3d films been developed. Ok i cant comment on 3D films but having seen for example Beowulf which is a movie I enjoyed in 2D,only let down was all the cringeworthy action scenes inwhich it was going out of its way to interact with the audience with the typical body thrown towards the camera scenes that u expect from 3d, and I just cant help but think why,Id much prefer imaginative and well thought out scenes and storylines which would impress me move than this gimmick. I fully agree with this statement below.

"3D can compliment a film experience if it’s immersive and worked into the story rather than the shameful pointy gimmickry that many seem to crave from 3D films. The best case in point being My Bloody Valentine 3D, which used a pick axe as the antagonist’s weapon of choice; possibly the pointiest of all weapons used in a horror movie http://techmeblog.co.uk/2009/07/19/3d-film-whats-the-point/

I just feel unless 3D films can develop and include brilliant storylines whether its in 2D ir 3D and restrains itself from using gimmick scenes which from what ive been told from fellow studets it has not yet and in a result the storylines have suffered then im not in favour which I fear is what will happen to video games when they inevitaly develop 3D in that well thought out intriquing storys will be ignored for unoriginal action games and cramming as much 3D effect in as possible without thinking.

The only 3D expeience i have been involved in is Shrek 3D at Universal Studious which is actually really fun and entertaing however is 5 mins and incorporates a kind of 4d effect with water squired at you and your chairs vibrating and the temperature of room changing. Even with all these effects it still did'nt feel as if u were part of the action as your in that sense of mind that its a just a screen which I feel that no matter how technology develops you have to be in that state of mind to actually believe its happening.

Wednesday, 24 March 2010

What Is The Value Of Creativity To Society?

I started of this task with my opinion that creativity only comes from those in the industry from games design, product design and more. In which case these are the people who go out of there way to demonstrate there creative skills in creating something that has never been made before and in pushing the bounds of technology

The value of creativity is certainly huge in the industry, this is the importance between some companies surviving and going bust so as far as a the competitive industry goes, Creativity is the most important factor and the amount of competitive rivalry forces industries to push their limits in creating new original ideas which have never been seen before. Which is kind of what the human race, is a competitive rivalry trying to earn a living, that’s where we have to display our creative abilities but we work together too.

Without a creative mind we would not have the ability to set ourselves aside from everyone else and follow our own steps in life and how could we could develop as a race if we all followed the same goal in life as we need creativity in all areas, for example people who are creative with numbers and solving equations not many others could, or people who are creative with food and serve delicious meals. All occupations display creative strengths to make them a successful living, and displays originality and expressiveness in their jobs to which creativity can also come with monetary value.

My conclusion is We all hold creativity, the stimulation of creativity can be something as simple as Cleaning you teeth, as there’s many solutions in which people perform to their liking and what suits them best displaying originality and a creative frame of mind so yes creativity is hugely important and influential in where we have come today and no doubt will continue in the foreseeable future.

Reference - http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/33307/self_improvement_and_motivation/the_value_of_creativity.html

http://www.projectesin.com/index.php?id=27

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Evaluation - LATE (moodle said 25th march to be uploaded by)

I started of the project with a quite a negative view on the whole Second life experience, I just did’nt see the logic behind it and just thought it was basically a place for your internet steriotypes. But after getting to learn the software and learning the capabilities it really grow me. I really enjoyed editing your characters apearance as Ive never experienced that much freedom to basically become what ever you want.I also really enjoyed the building side of it as unlike over software such as maya I found it rather straightforward to build interesting unique constructions and picked it up very quickly. Although I did’nt perform any scripting myself I was really impressed with some of the feauters such as been able to fly your own vechiles and opening and shutting doors.
For my project I teamed up with Dan and Steve and did the Steampunk island. I started off kind of out of my comfort zone which I liked as it was a new challenge to revel in having not knowing an awful amount about steampunk However I enjoyed researching it and found it a really interesting subject to perform.
As a group, we shared mixed experiences. We all came up with really good ideas but we did’nt work as well as we should have.We were all given certain roles within the group however within time we all were kind of overlapping and doing other peoples job for example my role was come up with concept art, yet I also found myself doing alot of Construction and building. Another point was our communication between eachother was not great as for example some of our buildings and designs looked nothing like our concept for our group to then comment they never saw no concept art, and at times we started of building without planning or drawing concept art which was a mistake as 9/10 the buildings looked horrible.
Things I did enjoy is I really liked the freedom, even though we were given a criteria of things to include on the island I love the freedom of basically been able to come up with crazy ideas see for instance our carousel. I also liked with working in a group geeting other peoples opinions and enjoyed splitting up and letting over people who have more skills in a pacific area do that role.
Overall Im quite pleased with the island and the buildings,and some of the ideas we came up with as a group were really good and unique of cause if I was to do this project againg theres things I’d do complely different, for example first thing Id do is redisign the fort as I believe it is a weak link and to straight. I definatly even though it wasnt particulary my role on the island work more with textures cause some of them are horrible and work more with sound and some scripting. I’d also start blogging from a much earlier date as towards the end it got a bit messy on the blogger and may seem confusing. And finally most importantly as a reference for more group work, plan ahead and keep everyone focused on what needs doing and so on but in general I quite pleased with the happenings.

Monday, 22 March 2010

Game Art 2.5




Heres just a reminder of some of the concept/ideas I came up which early in the project, In which I have used or taken forward and developed on the island.



Heres a screenshot of the two mining rigs I have developed, one is accessed normal by people via a lift and the other is accessed by the mine cart which drops down on the lift into the mines with the target of collecting coal to power the boilers of to produce steam powered energy. I really like the designs and Believe they work well together. They would both look good if they were scripted to animate however unfortunately we didn't get round to that.



Heres the mine cart design with the magnetic wheels I planned before. I really like the design of the cart and would be really good if we could get it animate along the track and follow it if its possible.



Heres a screenshot Of Stall I designed, not sure what the shop sells but would be nice to get an appropriate flag. I themed the stall to fit in with the surroundings and give it a rusty theme which is appropriate for a steam punk world.



Here is the fountain I constructed unfortunately we have not animated it yet as it would look really good with the water shooting up. I also like the location as I deliberately ,I made it as the first thing u see when u enter the fort as I wanted it to wow the visitors upon entrance.

Sunday, 21 March 2010

Game Art 2.4



Here is final concept art for the Fort, during this project we've had loads of trouble with the fort and basically been unable to settle on a final design and we keep changind ideas. We've now decided to get rid of the roof as I thought it was too repetitive with the interlocking pipe effect and looked average and spoiled the view. Plus when we experimented in delelting the roof I think we all agreed it looked better without. It aslo made constuction easier within the fort as u did'nt have the roof blocking your view. Within this concept they arnt much changes from the previous but a few things which have been included plus I did better quality sketchs and a top elevation plan.Most noticably we decided to add a walkway on the top of the fort whicg can be used if the island or fort ever becomes under attack.

Heres some screenshots of the Fort.







Unfortunatle for some reason we are unable to construct on this side of the fort as we did'nt plan on leaving the wall empty as we wanted to add some pipes onto the wall to complete the circuit around the wall. However we decided to cut into the fort and complete the circle that way.

Overal to be honest im not overly keen on the fort. In stand its purpose as a tall domiant building which will protect the building wihin, however there some parts of the fort which just look plain and boring and its too straight edged for my liking. I would have preferred to develop a more organic shaped fort. Howver as a group we did not plan the fort effectiantly and rushed straight into the design. However this is something we'll learn by in the future

Game Art 2.3



Here is a slighly modified verion of the market from the previous design I did, basiaclly I decided to give it more of a carousel shape than the previous design and I decided against the idea of kind of having housing on the top, and Ive atached the market stalls onto th axis to hopefully rotate which we plan to do or another idea is to have them rotate to the next position and have it stationary for a while. I only drew one main concept image as with it been round and symetrical the sides were gonna be the same and its a rounded shape so there was little to achieve in doing a top elevation



Here is a built version with a few textures Steve put on. I really like the design and if we could gat it to rotate I believe it will look really good and unique. Originally we he decided to go with 2 identicle carousels next to eachother and the plan was to have them both rotating in different directions.However I came across this while looking at a few images of carousels on the internet.



Its an image of a double acrosel ad I though it would be intereting to put this idea i use following the same idea of having them rotate in different directions. Obviously I also thought about how the guests would be alble to reach the top of the market, and I thought of experimenting with the idea with using a crane lift which Ive mentioned previously and if possible to get it animated moving up and down.



Heres a screenshot of the double carousel I just created. Unfortunatly at this point i was running out of time Is it was heading towards the deadline so I didnt have enought time to come up with concept art so basically I just went straight into building.



Having looked at the image of the double carousel again I decided to add a few more pillars to give the ride abit more stability and seem more realistic. I did this for both the bottom and upper part.



This is a screenshot of the bottom of the lift with the railing added. I also put in a switch which we could use as the visitors press the button and the lift opens if this is possible. Would be a nice touch to include.



This is the top half of the carousel inwhich I went with my idea of having a crane lift which I oringinally made some concept of earier on in the project so I took that idea and developed it further. I decided to attach the crane to the roff of the carousel and I drew reference from some images of cranes on the internet. Im fairly pleased by the results however I realised it is not as acurate as it would have been if I would have had concept to follow.



I decided to add a few pipes to the roof as it was quite bare and it would basically give the effect it was steam powered like most items/buildings on the island.

Overall I really like the design as its imaginative, it might not be the most practical of designs but it offers something different,and hopefully we have enought time to animate the floors so they rotate in different directions which will be a great feature to include I believe. All there is to do is to complete some of the texturing and then the market shall be completed.



Final screenshot of the Market area, this is probably my favorite design on the island. And I really like the new looking lift which i accendently found while searching through different textures to use, I added a few copper textures to go with the feel of a steam punk island and basically i'm very pleased with the final product.

game Art 2.2



Here is concept art for the Lighthouse with pub, as you can probably tell we went for a traditional style lighouse with the pub located at the bottom. We located the lighthouse inside the fort but had it at the edge of the fort and have it dominate the skline for obvious reasons. I also really like what Danny did and have the light rotate which is a great feature included. I quite like the lighthouse as its a simple idea I think which is done well and is placed in a superb location.

Heres some screenshots of the Lighouse with Pub






I really like the sign added, just a simple but great idea add just adds to the depth of the ireland.