13th may 2011 Final Blog Post

As this is my last blog post for professional practice in the games industry, I have decided to talk about the final pieces of work that I have created this year.

Business card

With the business card I used a default size for a business card which is 2.0 high and 3.5 inches wide.
As I wanted to show that I am a games artist, I created my business card to have a popular and well know game called “Pac-man” as my theme, as I believe it will seem more appealing than a normal business card.

Below is a link to the business card I created.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f292/Danog/bisscardfinal.jpg

CV

As well as the business card I also created a CV. This explained my background, my experience within video game development and my education and software skills. I kept the CV to a single page as I believe that if a CV is over a page long it seems very off putting when applying for a job, as the company just need to know the main core points about you.

(CV can be displayed on the website link provided bellow)

Show reel

For my final show reel I wanted to display the work that I have created within the third and final year of the course. This included my Reservoir Dogs scene, casino rock stage, casino rock instruments and the abandoned hallway scene. As I would like to be an environment artist as well as a prop artist I believe that displaying my skills within both areas was vital when creating the show reel. I achieved this by showing the environments I created, as well as the instruments I created for the casino rock stage environment.

Below is a direct link to the final show reel I created:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rifDS2lsdfs
Website
To display everything I had made in the final year of university, I created a website. This displays the house style presentation for all of the work I have completed in the third year as well as my CV, business card and show reel.
Below is a direct link to my website.
http://dgsart.weebly.com/

Presentation sheets

Since my last blog post I have been working a bit more on my website, updating it with more work that I have created such as the Casino Rock scene and also house style presentation sheets that I plan to show at the end of year show.
As I was not sure how to display my work I have decided to take the main props (Drum kit, Bass Guitar and Guitar) and put them on their own presentation sheet.

With this approach it means I will have three final presentation sheets for the end of year show. The first presentation sheet showing the props used in the Casino rock scene, the second presentation sheet show the Casino rock environment and the final presentation sheet showing the abandoned hall way scene.

Before putting the props in to the presentation sheet I first did a few test renders, trying out different camera angles and different lighting moods and technics .

Render 1 – This is a render of all the props with wire frame, ambient occlusion with a three point light set up using warm and cold colours to give it more depth.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f292/Danog/comp_1.jpg

Render 2 – This is a render from the front view display wire frame and ambient occlusion. The lighting was still a three point light set up but without the warm and cold colours.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f292/Danog/comp_2.jpg

Render 3 – The third render I created was with all the textures applied as well as ambient occlusion. I used the war and cold three point lighting set up to give the main render more depth.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f292/Danog/final-2.jpg

Below are two examples of the Casino Rock prop presentation sheets.

Example one – This is the first test that I created for my presentation. This shows three render shots of my scene. The problem I had with this presentation sheet is that it looks to overwhelming. It also does not show the pollycount and the texture maps I have used.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f292/Danog/House_1.jpg

Example Two – As I felt the first example that I created was to overwhelming I decided to take the front view of the render out, this also gives me room to place my pollycount information and the texture sheets I used. I tried to also make the presentation sheet more “Casino” like by also adding in some dice.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f292/Danog/House_2.jpg

Website

Since reviewing the brief for the work we need to do for the module, I have been working on my website to show people the work I have created in a professional style. The web site shows environment art as well as prop art I have created and gives the viewer small bits of information about the models. There is also an about me section as well as a contact section if anyone would like to contact me about a job placement or information about the work I have created.

Below is a link to my website.

http://dgsart.weebly.com/

18th February 2011

This week I have been reviewing the Brief for our second assignment and what parts of my portfolio I would like to be marked on.

Below is how I would like to be marked on the work I do: -

40% Show reel: - The show reel will consist of work I have done with in the final year and possibly work I have done while being on the course. The two main parts of work it will be focusing on will be The Rock Band Stage and The Abandoned Hall Way.

10% Business cards: - This will be mock up ideas for a business card, and also the final design and product.

20% Presentation sheets: - These will be high quality renders of my work printed out and displayed in a physical portfolio.

Progression of this will be displayed in my upcoming blog posts.

End of year company

For this blog post I have researched in to “Capcom” for one of the companies I would want to invite to the end of year show.

Capcom – The reason I chose Capcom was for its well-known gory/fighting games, such as Resident Evil, Street Fighter and Devil May Cry. For each of these three games the environment scenes are all very different.

• ·         Street Fighter – Side scrolling fighting game. For their latest Street Fighter (Street Fighter 4) Capcom kept the arcade feel but made the environment 3D. This was a new challenge for them and the result was very good, keeping the 2D side scrolling feel, with cartoony textures in a 3D environment.

• ·         Devil May Cry – Devil my cry is a hack and slash game where you run round large environments defeating enemies. Unlike Street fighter, these environments are realistic base, showing good use of lighting, camera angles and texture maps.

• ·         Resident Evil – This is most probable Capcom’s biggest title. Well known as a video game and also as a movie, Resident Evil environments set the mood for the game its self. Resident Evils environments look very old and destroyed to give a better fell of “chaos”.

Overall I think that Capcom would be a great company to invite to the end of the year show. This being because they have a good understanding of different art styles, being it cartoony or realistic.

Final post showreel/design sheet

As my main interest in the games industry is environment modelling I have taken on the role of an environmental artist or a prop artist. For this I have done my show reel based on environment and have also created a design sheet for a prop that I created in my second year of university, thus demonstrating how I would showcase my work.

The Show Reel

For my show reel I used 50% of my own work and 50% of other peoples show reels and concept art that inspired me.

The work included in my show reel is all environmental and does not focus much on props. The environment pieces I have used are: -

·         Cottage

·         Indoor cottage

·         Reservoir dogs scene

·         The Abandoned Hall Way

Below is a direct link to my show reel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3c6sL_Wdkw

The Cottage

 As you can see in the show reel the cottage is WIP (work in progress) and is still in the block out stage. I decided to show the model I have done so far on it and also the concept art that I am working from. I have tried to set up cameras in the style I want them to be in my final show reel, and also added a character artist’s show reel to give a better understanding to the approach I am going for.

In door cottage

I chose to do the inside of the cottage I am creating as well. I have not yet started the block out stage of this yet, so I have added the concept art and an example from an environment artists show reel. His show reel demonstrates good camera movement around the environment, showing the depth of lighting he has used as well as showing wire frame view. I hope to achieve the same effect when I do my final product.

Reservoir dogs scene

In my film scene (Reservoir Dogs) I want to show the progression stages I have done to get my final product. For this I have used what I have created so far. I first used cameras with a repeat rotation on them, then I rendered out a base texture build and then rendered out the diffuse maps. After doing this I then faded them in together to get the effect I was looking for. With the final product I will also be showing wire frame normal maps and light maps. At the end of the progression stage I plan on showing beauty shots of the scene showing close ups of the environment.

The Abandoned Hall Way

The final environment piece will be my Abandoned Hall way. For this I plan to mainly show beauty shots of the scene with the possibility of a fly through camera. I have yet to start the block out of this scene, so I made use of the concept sheet I am working from. This will exhibit my strengths in hard edge modelling.

Music

The music I have used is from the films “28 Days/Weeks Later” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbwlGv9SWfY) The reason I have chosen this song is that it does not seem too overpowering and gives my environments more of a deep/dark mood (Which is the effect I am trying to achieve).

Design sheet

The design sheet is based on a prop I created for my character in the steam punk project in year 2 of the course. The sheet shows two perspective shots, one front view and one side view. All shots have AO (ambient occlusion) maps and are also shown in wire frame.

http://img576.imageshack.us/i/finalnr.jpg/

10th December 2010

This week I have carried on with my show reel plan.

I have now added video material from a character artists show reel to show the view the effect I am trying to achieve. This effect is a turn table of the character and then the camera dose close ups showing off the high detail on the model.

Below is a screen grab of my show reel plan with the character artists show reel in the clip.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f292/Danog/video_showreel.jpg

As stated before the character artist dose close ups of his model, I am also going to do the same effect to show off the model more. I have put together a camera rig and batch rendered off the scenes to place in to my show reel. Below is an image of this.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f292/Danog/close_up_showreel.jpg

Next week I will be posting up my final show reel plan. I am going to add text to the show reel as well as more images and possibly more video animation.