UCAS/ Progression Choices

UCAS/ Progression Choices

I am fairly certain that i want to continue to level 6 Honors at Newcastle College because I like the teaching scheme and the close personal help I can receive from my tutors, I will however research other institutions


Newcastle College
BSc (Hons) Applied Computing (Games and Digital Media) (1 year)

"Explore further technologies in the gaming industry, During your study you will increase your knowledge of games design, character and asset design".

This is what I want to improve upon, and is my first choice as I am already located at this Institution. 

http://www.ncl-coll.ac.uk/courses/4404/bsc-hons-applied-computing-games-and-digital-media-delivered-in-partnership-with-teesside-university


University of Gloucestershire 
Computer Games Design (BSc Hons) (3 years)

"Create your own computer games and take them to market. Gain the contacts and expertise to make a unique game and sell it as part of a successful business plan".

This particular University would be another choice, but its location and course duration are not exactly what I am looking for.

http://www.glos.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/cgs/pages/computer-games-design-bsc-hons.aspx

University of Huddersfield

Computer Games Design BA(Hons) 2016-17 (3 year)

"The course covers the creative aspects of games design and development and provides opportunities for you to specialize in more complex aspects of game and level design or games art at later stages of the course".

I do not wish to move away from home to finish my honors degree, a lot of other university are too far away from home, I am also unfamiliar with the area, the duration also is not what I am looking for.

http://www.hud.ac.uk/courses/full-time/undergraduate/computer-games-design-ba-hons/

These are my other choices if Newcastle College fails, but I have confidence I will be accepted there.

A boring to look at post so here is some art;

Games Simulation

Games Simulation

This module was all about creating a video game level using our design skills and simulating a game
the level did not have to have any game play elements , they are merely an after thought, the module was mostly about our artistic/designing skills

I continued the idea from my environment design module because I liked the aesthetic and style, set in a Slime refinery type area.

I loved this module a lot, it helped me learn how to create animations using Unreal Engine and help me understand programming using nodes

Here are some concepts of some of the characters and environment that will be present in my game level

The Title: Goo Dodger






Dodger himself

Fist and Foot Meathead

Professor Slimeball











Asset List
I have a large list of assets I have drawn to create my level, these were all created in Photoshop and are designed to be environmental features/pickups for the level.

Pipes, These were used to create the levels walls and obstructing platforms for the player to walk around on

Computers,These are just to help fill the space to make the environment populated

The reason I uploaded these is to talk about my progress from year 1, these are all small but help populate a level, in comparison to last years work which are all grand large illustrations that are developed around concept art, a different form of art for assets for use in a game, just to talk about how I feel I have improved over the year.


I also learned how to create a walk cycle for animation:

This module further allowed me to learn more about anatomy as you can see in of the run cycle animation.

A screenshot of the level in production:

I will not fill this blog with irrelevant screenshots of previous work any more, these were simply uploaded to show what exactly it was that I did during Games Simulation, In evaluation I loved this module, more then  thought I would, it was very interesting to be able to draw and put in place assets for a game level and see them impact a characters movement, and the node programming was very interesting and a different easier way to program and get the assets to act the way you want them to.

SWOT

Strengths
This module at first was daunting and I was afraid of the final result, but I learned a massive amount about unreal engine and I was able to create a pretty nice game level that looked nice. it gave me confidence

Weaknesses
 would have liked to learn more about the technical side of things, more coding lessons would have been amazing but we are only in uni for 2 days a week so time is already tight

Opertunities
As I have mentioned before I learned loads in unreal so I was able to broaden my horizons to this software and I am now able to use it and its basics, I will enjoy testing my limits in the future with this new knowledge

Threats
at first this module was hard, the multiple outcomes had be guessing and not sure what to do until about half way through, I spent too much time just thinking rather then doing on this assignment.

Environment Design

Environment Design

This was the module I was looking forward to, I feel like I am best at creating environments, at least artwork of them, this module allowed me many ways to learn how to create environments more effectively, My dream is to be like Feng Zhu or James Zapata one day and a lot of the techniques they use I attempted in this module

Looking at Clouds
This is a technique used by Feng Zhu, in which he takes samples of environments and throws them around nonsensically in Photoshop to help create a new idea. This are my attempts at this:

All these images have been created by using already existing images to create something new, this is the Looking at Clouds technique

Some other techniques I tried during this module

All in the progress of generating Ideas.

Some of the other early designs I did to simply get a feel for what I wanted to get out of this module, I really wanted to learn new things about Environment design so I tried many new ways of creating, the following images are designs I created either using 3D or other programs like Painter.

I had a visualization of green and large wide open spaces  for this module, But using other ways to create environments is something I would like have not done without the module brief.

I love this module a lot and I feel like my final was good, the only problem was this module guide was given to us at a point where we only had a single lesson, so all the work was done mostly by myself without lecturer support, this personally different bother me as I like working alone, but having some input could have been helpful

This is the final piece for this module;

 SWOT 

Strengths

This module although short was the one I had been most comfortable with my greatest strength is my environment design, I was able to relax and just get creative without worrying too much about the end result.

Weaknesses

I don't really have a weakness for this, or nothing that really effected my progress other then the fact we only had one lesson that really talked about Environment design, but I am not  using that as an excuse because I feel like I was confident enough to work using my own knowledge.

Opportunities

I normally create  environment designs similar to the ones I created for this assignment, but I did learn to use 3DS max to help with perspective and lighting,

Threats

We were given this module close to its hand in, so we felt rushed.

Character Design

Character Design
Character Design was for me a particularly good module, it allowed me to practice anatomy and composition to make believable characters.

I enjoyed creating facial expressions and different characters for me to decide what one I wanted to create for my final piece,
Here are some of the Concepts I created for this project before I decided what character I was creating.

Dynamic poses to try and create some interesting views for my characters

 These were the character concepts I designed to choose from, many people like different characters but I choose my personal favorite from these as I enjoyed the design the most.

This was a practice of facial expressions so I could ad them to my character, I had never tried something like this before and I was very happy about the outcome

The character I designed was a Cyclops called Greegore, despite his size and lack on intellect he has a heart of gold, this idea for me is very enjoyable I love the gentle giant type characters, I attempted to create many different versions of Greegore to fit the style I wanted.

Here are some design concepts for Greegore that I created for the module;

This image was one of the first images I drew for Greegore he was originally a very large and angry character designed to be a boss fight or an antagonist. The small character is there to determine Greegores overwhelming size.

 This was a portrait of Greegore I created using a 3D designing program (3Ds MAX) and then I painted over the top of it to create a realistic version of Greegores face, He ended up looking like a sailor, but I liked it so I left it as is

Here are some dynamic poses for the character I decided that only one of them I actually liked so I went ahead and colored that one and added it to the final model sheet.

Facial expressions that made it on the final model sheet, I hope you can see the slow advancement in quality as y skill increases as I draw the faces, the final model sheet ended up having two extra great expressions that I use on the two poses I created for Greegore.

And finally this is the last Model sheet I handed in, I am quite proud of it even though I feel like some of the lines are very scratchy and sharp.

This module was very fun for me, It allowed me to show myself that I could create characters, which is a skill I previously thought I didn't have, though the character is simple, the art looks good.

SWOT

Strengths
Greegore looks good, I feel like this module helped me understand the importance of personality in character designs, I was able to show complex emotion on a character, Very happy with it

Weaknesses
Simple design makes Greegore look a bit plain, I would have added more items on his person to give him more likeability, but I was pressed for time. I also had difficulty just doing a character at all, as I am normally juts used to doing environments

Opertunities
It will be a nice addition to my artbook to see one character development and a little story about him, I am hoping it will attract people to my developing skills.

Threats
I would have dove this all traditionally, avoided unnecessary costs, but I am more confident with my digital skills so I had to spend that extra money and time creating it in Photoshop, I had a large amount of time to do this project which allowed me to relax a little bit too much.

Semester 1 Y2 FD Games Design Evaluation

Semester 1 Y2 FD Games Design Evaluation

General Semester 1 Review
I really enjoyed the first semester all the modules we were given allowed me to increase my skills and knowledge and help me towards achievement my goal of being an accomplished Concept Artist, It is my dream to become skilled enough for people to realize my work as "good". Many of the modules in this semester were good fun, they all appealed to me and I feel like I did a great job in each of them.

I feel like the modules were well paced but the exception of Environment Design, having only one lesson on the subject I was very much left on my own to create this, but for me personally this was fine as I prefer it this way, I ultimately created more work for environment design and achieved a higher grade for it then the Character Design module

I also enjoyed the node programming that I took upon myself to learn for the Games Simulation module I was able to create a working health bar which I thought could have been beyond my skills

But above all the first semester helped me improve my artistic skills in many different ways, Characters, Environments and even Animation in Games Simulation.