Blog Evaluation

I started a blog in order to show my thoughts and research during BA8 similar to my work in BA7. I wanted to have a area in which i could look back on any work I have done and see the development and be able to revert back to research. My goal was to post at the least 3 times a week and explain my work in detail on choices and changes I have had to make throughout BA8. It was also an area I post work i have done that is relevant to my course but not as important as my main BA8 project as that work would be important to show and explain.

I feel like i have maintained a good blog that i have regally updated with a few gaps where i have been busy. I have shown and posted many different drafts of work in which has gone through many different stages of development alongside, personal development work and research on some subject areas. Thanks to my blog I have also been able to always been in-reach of my work either at home or at uni. Some areas of my blog could have been better, or more formal and explained but overall it appears to be stronger than my last and it does show my work progression both BA8 and my personal development. The best areas are showing my work with John and my Showreel development as in both areas I have shown what I have designed and planned to do as well as the development of that work.

I feel confient that blogging is a key area of design as it hub of information you can personally rely on and that you can see the effort placed into work by the different stages of design. I will continue this practice outside of University.

Last day

I had a short 1- 1 with my tutor today in which a couple of mistakes and areas I could improve on were discussed. Firstly my showreel needed to include a reference to the music i used. I used a Loyalty free soundtrack from  www.Sounddogs.com. The track was called Oasis. Also on the showreel I needed to change BA Honours to BA (Hons) and there was jittering on the playback of my showreel which needed to be sorted. I was able to speak to another tutor in which the jittering was fixed by removing the image from the showreel, exporting the video then placing it into After Effects were I could replace the image and animate it without the jittering. It took time to do and it has increased the size of the file as i had to render and export it as a H.264 but it is better to have a cleaner showreel at a larger size than a unfinished version.

Another area I needed improving was my spelling and writing in my game document as there are many spelling mistakes throughout the document. Another issue was the colour of the text, due to my background changing colour the white text throughout my document was uncomfortable to read, i have now changed my text colour to make the document designed better for the examiner. I have also made my  numbered points clearer to see as they faded into the text.

Today i also finished my personal practice pages as i wrote about what i have done to build myself as a game designer from competitions, student work, presentations and more. I put the information into a simple designed layout.

Website, ready for hand in

This is an example of my website I have created to host a selection of my work for any potential employers to look at and see what I can do as well as see other methods of contacts to me. I created this website on tumblr a free web hosting site were you can use your own domain and design or use created themes to display your work. I thought that tumblr was a good choice because it is simple in design, I have the choice to change my website layout and style very easily as well as posting work takes seconds. I also means I can save costs and time designing then buying web space. Because I was able to save on money hosting a full website I was able to purchase 2 years worth of domain and i can continue to purchase the domain after the time has finished.

This is my submission image as it gives both the website domain, as well as an example of my website incase they examiners cant access the internet at the time of marking.

Business Cards redo

After making a first draft of a Business card on photoshop demonstrating that I am planning to use a QR code (Quick Response) I thought that I'd have another attempt at creating a business card. I was told by Matt from Jagex that a lot of designers or games industry employers like to pin up fun and artistic business cards up if they like the image on the card. Due to that reason I thought I should make a business card in my cartoon style that is different and quirky. I made 2 sides the card, the front has a creature looking down at my game and title and the back has a QR linking to my website as well as the website link. It's a simple design in which gives enough information for employers to potentially want to look at my work more.

I do like the design, however I also feel that I needs more work to make it stand out and get employers to pick it up. I also feel like i can make a better design that fits me as a person, i do still like the original version my business card and i may revert back to a similar style but have a more artistic look.

Finalized showreel

http://youtu.be/oqsKWK_k53c

or

Showreel demo 2

Here is my new version of my showreel so far:

http://youtu.be/mBlWk-pwGWg

or

There are a few issues I need to fix in this showreel example, however I am also in the progress of completing my showreel. At the end of the showreel I have left time or some examples of gameplay of the demo me and john are trying to make. I need to remove the large section of black space in the video as that can be easily fixed by moving the render time back to the end of the video.

QR Code

As i made a design for a business card to help promote myself and my website I thought I could add a QR code. Today I bought my Domain Name for my website and was able to generate my own working QR code that links to my web Domain.

Here is the QR code:

Showreel

Over the last couple of days I have been working on different things such as my main work, business cards and more and i have been thinking of how I could make my showreel better as although I designed a new background frame for my showreel I don't think its as good and I don't personally like it. I felt that it was missing a theme or the element that makes it different/stand out. I wanted another image for my showreel in my cartoon creature style so I designed this image (shown below) as another practice in illustrator as well as more to add to my art collection.

This concept was based around showing the audience that I have a lot of ideas thus being a lightbulb rather than the annta light. I quite liked the background and thought that I could break the image part and make it into a larger scale image by incorporating it all into my showreel. Now my showreel is based underwater giving it a theme that carries thoughout. I also learnt how to animate on Final Cut Pro and made a series of animations now out of images to make the whole showreel stand out. 

I also had to create a lot my my images to fit this new theme and i did that using my art frames and interesting methods.

Examples:

Business Card

As a quick thought on creating connections as well as getting people to visit my website i thought that having a business card that has a QR code will help people remember who i am and make them more likely to visit my website.

I had a brief look at business cards on the web as well as different and modern business cards. From looking around I don't have the necessary time to create business cards that are modern with folds or cut out edges but looking at some cards shows how a simple image with the basic necessary info is enough to look good. Here is an example of one I found  I would pick it up if I saw it:

http://cardrabbit.com/cool-business-card-thinktank/

I did my own design of a business card, this is the first version and a rough copy:

Pause Menu

I saw John the other day and found out there was a lack of communication through our emails in which he didn't receive some files i sent over. This has slowed down the production of the demo for Nimbo however i was able to see the menu working on gamesalad. The demo looks great and mostly works which i am really please with.

I had to quickly make some more images for John to fit into the demo and make sure he got some other files i had sent before in which he didn't get. During this time he also said he could make a pause menu for the game so that its easier to get from the demo level back to the menu. While i was sorting out files and using photoshop i quickly made a pause menu with the necessary layers to drop straight into Gamesalad.

Here is the Pause Menu:

Showreel New Background and Design

Today I went over what I have done for my showreel. As I was told the other day that I need to improve my showreel and remove the clutter and distractions as well as add more character animations to the Avatar. I have had a new perceptive on my showreel and chosen to get rid of my avatar and to replace the background with a generally eye pleasing and relating framed background. Shown Below I will add this background to my showreel and see how well it fits the animations.

Teeshirt and Merchandise

Today i have been preparing my merchandise for my final submission due to the upcoming hand in. I had planned out and got the materials for making merchandise however i didn't complete making them due to other projects and my main work being more important, however i don't want to waste the opportunity to make merchandise for my game concept as it will great to show in the project as well as to show and have in the degree show. All i need was to print out some templates so i can cut out the materials for a push toy, i also had a look at designing a couple different teeshirts today in which i could get printed.

Here are the designs:

I came into a issue when i went to get the teeshirt printed as i couldn't get it printed on a blue shirt unless each line of Nimbo was created by vectors as well as all had to be different coloured greys. The greys would have to then vary from darker to lighter and sliver would even have to be added. This may then make Nimbo look wrong or different. A compromise is to have the image printed on a white teeshirt which wouldnt look as nice but i would have a real teeshirt.

Group Crit

Today i had a busy day due to a number of different lessons, duties and work i had to do however it was also helpful and useful day as i have some new directions in which to take in regards to my showreel and written work
We had a group crit session today with 2 tutors, an industry ex student and a couple of other students where i had to show and discuss my project along with relevant points to submission and plans for degree show. It went well and i took up a lot off time showing all the work i have done so far, thus showing that i had a reasonable about of work done. I was worried that because of my strong change into working on personal practice it would effect my main project heavily.

The feedback given back was that i had a strong amount of work and i was on the right track, however there was areas i need to improve and change to make sure i can get the best mark possible. One area of improvement was my written work is full of spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes through-out all my work, but most of all in my blog. This means that i will have to go through my blog and correct many mistakes i have made to help my project taking an unnecessary negative mark.

Another main area that need to be worked on is my showreel, the idea and style was liked however it wasn't strong enough and was to "crowded" to make any impact or make viewers enjoy watching. Firstly again there were silly spelling mistakes in the showreel which is the first area i need to fix. Next was the background frame as well as the text around the frame that is drawing away from the image and crowding the video. Another point was that the music doesn't match the speed of the art transitions so different music will work better.

The other point raised was in my trailer for Nimbo it lacked motion and expression in the character as well as some areas were to long with nothing much happening. Advice was to add in more character motion like changing colours or the character moving its arms.

Showreel Version 1

http://youtu.be/AFeqI0Wamjs

This is a link to my first finished version of my showreel i have made in Final Cut Pro.