The Final Stretch. BA8

Over the Christmas period, whist taking breaks from the dissertation, I decided to play around with Mentalray, a 3D rendering software to produce a more polished finish to my environment designs. I settled on creating a living room space as I haven't got a lot of experience constructing interiors. It would also prepare me when designing my museum. I wanted to practice creating realistic textured assets and lighting.

So I have just taught myself how to use mental ray materials to create certain effects when rendering the final image. Such as glass, metals and other visual effects.

Here is a finished rendition incorporating a range of different materials to demonstrate variety in textures.

At a different angle, you get more of an idea with lighting placement with the shadows. I'm particular pleased with how clear the shadows of the glass of the top of the coffee table and the fibres of the rug are. Speaking of which, I am also very pleased with how effective and realistic the glass and rug turned out.

28/1/15

Today I was lucky enough to take part in and interview for my games work. We were approached by Michael McDonagh a web designer and media student from Essex, he wanted to know more about my project and my views on gaming I was happy to help out and was rather excited about the idea of being in a film which was going to be on YouTube and on his site.

I spoke about my museum and what I wanted to achieve and get out of the project. I made some notes on key areas I wanted to mention, not all of them came up in topic but I still very much enjoyed the experience. Michael and I managed to exchange information and plan to keep in contact for future projects.

30/1/15

So I have just handed in my dissertation and this has lifted a great weight off my shoulders. Now I can focus on the task of creating my museum and working on my portfolio.

Going for Gold

2/2/15

After relaxing over the weekend I was creating more links on twitter promoting my work through various contacts I have made when I get a message from an indie developer that I have been following asking if I could beta test their game for them. I was over the moon, I had been following their work for so long and helping out in the community when they give me an early version of build to test.

http://cartoneros.co/index.html

3/2/15

Ok after coming home from my job I downloaded the game files and cracked on with the test. Within the first 10 minutes of having the game I found a game halting bug. When you open the game, it requires you to log in although when you type in your password, it registered the star keys as your password not the password itself.

As you can probably imagine they were quite thankful that I had found this problem in the early stages.

4/2/15

Whilst the guys at Estudio Antropo were fixing the issue I heard back from another contact of mine I had made a while ago online asking if I would like to join up and take part in a Virtual / Augmented Reality project.

Katie Aquino aka Miss Metaverse. She first contacted me about working on a VR project where we could create furniture, for example items from stores like Ikea and build a virtual showroom for people to navigate and explore to get a better feel of the item before purchasing. This would be for a more online audience who would not be able to make it into a store.

Katie then asked for any examples of my work. I then created a scene and sent her some rendered images.

This kitchen scene I left the roof off to let in more light considering this was a rather hurried rendition to just show what I could do.

Of course these were done really quickly and not to a finished quality but it gave an idea to the team I would be working with to what we were planning to achieve.

5/2/15

Ok, now that I've got all the excitement of meeting new people and finding work abroad out the way I've been focusing back on my university work.

After the break of BA7 I could revisit my museum with fresh eyes. After looking at the layout and the themes I had created, I wasn't really happy with what I had. With the final deadlines closing in, I knew if I wanted to make some major changes, now was the time to do it, so keeping all the research I had gathered I started sketching out new ideas for a main hall or entrance to a museum.
I feel that with what I have, it gives off the wrong feeling of scale and stature I wanted to create. Instead of dwarfing the viewer with giant arcade machine style structures, I wanted the focus to be on the exhibits and I feel my original design will detract a little too much from it. So looking back through my studies of architecture and the feedback from my classmates, I thought it might be best to try to combine the more traditional aspects with modern attributes whilst still keeping within my original brief.
I feel this space is very limiting in what it can house with the arcade machine like structures it closes in the main hall and creates a very disjointed layout. I am still happy with the idea of creating a game themed building with structures influenced by the styles though I feel for practical reasons it doesn't work as well as I had hoped.

6/2/15

I started off by doing very quick and rough block outs just to translate my ideas into 3D, I didn't want to spend to long on this and I also wanted to recycle many assets I'd already created in my previous model to save me time. So I draw a lot of inspiration from some of my personal favorite museums, the large double staircase at the back is a direct inspiration of the staircase from the Natural History Museum in London. I think it opens up the room a lot more and creates a more space for larger exhibits much like dinosaur skeletons that are exhibited in the entrance hall of the Natural History Museum. I have removed the large structures to open up the space and to also create more surface area to place work and to make the area more efficient. As a starting point, I think it works to accommodate any big changes as I go.

7/2/15

I have started to refine some more of my modular assets. I want to keep the main buildings structure looking strong and powerful with large pillars and stone platforms but also want to keep a modern almost futuristic feel to more detailed areas.

Many of the designs I came up with I feel are a little too outlandish and will be very distracting to the audience. I still wanted the pillars to be a bit more unusual in design so I came up with the below design, a traditional style of arch with a bit of an edgier modern design.

8/2/15

Today I have been looking into creating my own website for my games environment portfolio. I have been browsing through many different sites that people have created for their own work, some of which I liked and some I didn't. 

I liked that this site displayed current employment and a drop down list of past employment, but I didn't like how all the images of the work were crammed in together it made things look cluttered and unorganized to me, it also seemed to not do the work any justice.

https://develterematthias.wordpress.com/

I prefer this second website much more because the images on show are larger and all in focus, it looks much tidier and you can concentrate on the single image, quality over quantity. You can also click on the images to open up pages to the complete projects, so if the viewer wanted to know more information on that one piece they can.

http://bertrandremondin.com/

I like the way the "about me" section has been displayed but the overall layout of the page just doesn't work for me, It fits with the style of work but it only caters for one style of work, I would be planning on showing a wide range of my skills so would need to find a style that would highlight all areas without distracting from the subjects.

http://thesixtyeight.com/

9/2/15

Today I was also doing more game play testing for Estudio Antropo testing the multiplayer and how the combat worked in game. I had such a great time running around and shooting my friends, along with discussing what worked and what didn't. I created a document (below) listing areas I felt could be improved and areas I really enjoyed. 

10/2/15

I've decided that it would benefit my project and my work greatly if I were to get the new unreal engine 4 so today I have been looking into different ways of downloading the engine, I have applied to Github in attempts to get the free student copy but I haven't had a reply. So I'm starting to think I might just subscribe to the service and pay monthly.

11/2/15

After discussing getting a website up and running with a web designer, I started to think more about my online and offline presence as more of a professional. I wanted to create a logo for myself that looked smart, futuristic and would give a clear idea about what I was about and what I do.

To start with I looked at my clan logos for my Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare, I created these simply through the app emblem creator. For the main image in the center, I just used my name and positioned them to create an interesting shape that looks quite modern and stylish due to its harsh angles and symmetry.

The different colours highlight the letters in my name and were just to make the origin clear.

I had an idea of what I wanted in mind but I wanted to keep looking for inspiration to refine my idea rather then just using the first thing that popped into my head. First I started to look at popular artists that have used the polygraphic designs I was interested in. Artists such as Will.i.am, Labrinth and Swedish House Mafia have all got similar science fiction elements that interest me and I would like to incorporate into my work. 

 (Labrinth)

 (Swedish House Mafia)

(Will.i.am)

The reason I like these styles is because I feel they can become an extension of the body and could manipulate how we see form. I'd like to see how I could use this to create new and interesting shapes for my design. 

Whilst looking for similar styles of artwork I came across rawandrendered.tumblr.com looking at this gave me so many ideas that I could explore in creating new forms for a more interesting and unique design. 

To me all these images look living tissue and life which I thought was a interesting concept for a logo to represent myself as an environment artist.

Below are my two favorite images by Raw and Rendered, I like having the hard solid edges and having the more fluid moving pieces inside. I will work with this same style for my  thumbnail sketches.

12/2/15

I imported my level into the Unity engine to see how it looked from a first person perspective, I was very happy with the scale and the size of the space I was going to use.

Though I still feel that this engine is not fulfilling the realistic style and lighting that I wish to achieve in this project. I'm sure it can be done and I am in no way discrediting this engine but personally the new Unreal engine is something I would really like to be a part of and understand completely. 

One thing I am unsure about in this layout is the pillar structure on the roof. It blocks a lot of the natural light and is a distraction when looking up to the large windows on the ceiling. I had planned to make the roof interesting to look at as a feature when exploring the museum but I did not want to over complicate the main body of the museum as it does a little bit here. Again, I want subtle features that aren't too distracting but are still unusual when looked at closely. I don't know if this is too much of a contradiction in terms but I will have to keep it in check. The museums I visited in London were certainly grand and impressive but only in sections that weren't directly exhibiting, such as the entrance halls which could be something to consider.

Inspiration for the roof: the V&A Museum.

13/2/15

Today was a day of tutorial's. All I have done today is watch Unreal 4 tutorials to get a base knowledge of how things work and how to navigate the controls.



After watching many hours of tutorials on importing work and how to light areas with different effects and methods, I wanted to import my museum into the new engine. So I did...

I am amazed at how the museum looks in the new unreal engine, the lighting looks fantastic and the assets look really well polished. Having viewed the layout in a more realistic engine, I am more satisfied with the way the beams across the ceiling appear. Considering how realistic and plausible I want the museum to be, the glass ceiling is a brilliant source of light and gives a great sense of openness. I also quite like how it gives the impression of being outside.
The structure in the centre was one I had created a while ago and I had just placed it there to get an idea of scale and shadow over the assets that will be there eventually.

14/2/15

I have now started to look into creating business cards for myself to promote my work when I go to conventions or other games related events. There are many different sites that I like the look at but at the moment I need to sort out all the information that I want to display on the card so feel it would be best to sort out my website before taking this further.

15/02/2015

Before I started diving deep into the Unreal engine, I wanted to do a bit of research and learn some of the basics to speed up my work flow so I started watching YouTube tutorials and reading articles published by Unreal.

I wanted to spend the whole day learning and testing different assets I'd created in Maya in the Unreal engine following the tutorials trying to get them to stick in my memory.
I'm really enjoying running Maya on one screen and Unreal on the other so I can make changes from one program and very quickly and easily importing it to the other.

16/02/2015

I've just started importing assets into Unreal, I'm getting really excited about my work and the way things are starting to look. I feel I can start putting a lot more detail into the textures and make them on a larger scale. Also now that I have programs such as Crazybump, which is a quick and easy tool for creating normal maps from a texture, I'm finding more a rhythm that I can work to when creating assets and a work flow.

The results of which I am very pleased with, especially the marble texture on the arch.

17/02/2015 

Norwich games festival is on the way, and I thought it would be a good idea and opportunity if I signed up and took part this year. After the success of last years event I thought it would be wise to get involved in this years, I always like meeting new people and discussing their work process and ideas.
So I contacted Robin Silcock for more information about how to sign up and what I would need and she directed me to Annabel Osborn who gave me all the information I need and asked which days would be best for me to work.
She later said that they were having an Indie Developer meet up at a pub to just get to know each other and break the ice. I turned up had managed to meet a couple of students from around the UK along with people that had just picked up games design themselves, it was quite surreal come up to me and say "so you're a games designer" and ask to see my work and what I thought. It wasn't too long ago that Id be going up to people who's work I thought was good and asking them the same thing.

https://twitter.com/Annabel_Osborn

https://twitter.com/RobinSilcock


18/02/2015

Since this week is a self directed week I thought it would be a good idea to crack on with the submission brief I plan to send out to other students for them to submit their own work into my museum. I was directed to a site that follows a similar idea to what I plan to do, the site is called CgShere.com and below is a break down of their briefs and how they do it.

From looking at the way theirs is done, it is a good idea to keep it simple but have a firm criteria that states any limitations. I will need to think about how to state exactly what I want from them and in what form I want it, as well as the correct dimensions. Ideally, I'd like work that can be displayed on a plinth possibly behind glass so they would need to consider whether or not the work could fit in a designated area.

19/2/2015

Happy Chinese new year

Today was a relax and chill day since its Chinese new year. This evening I went out for a meal and whilst eating and talking to my programming friends I came up with the idea of hosting my museum online for users to upload their exhibits any time they'd like. We discussed how you could do it and we came to the conclusion that it may be best to create a separate wing of the museum where you have one main artifact that could be interchanged by a person with an online account for the site. Each person would see their own work and it would remain there in a 3D space until they close the site and log out.

This is quite an interesting idea I would like to develop more on but this will have to wait till after my main project as to not effect my timetable.

20/2/2015

I am now the proud owner of ZakField.com

I have also been looking up templates for my site, I have narrowed it down to two that I like the most and I feel would work best for what I am planning on doing with my work.

http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/52835.html

http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/53017.html

I found these on templatemonster.com, its an inconvenience that the ones I like the most are some of the more expensive templates. I am going to keep looking until I find something in my range of costs that still look professional and modern.

21/2/2015

Today I have been working more towards my website and it's design, I have been working with a web designer friend of mine on the layout and functions. I am also looking through my work choosing and creating content to show on the home page. Hopefully once this is all up and running, I can start to sort out my business cards with all the correct information for all my social media sites.

22/02/2015

I have been working on refining models all day and importing assets into Unreal 4, I may have found a problem that I overlooked when changing engines. I now have to re-scale a lot of my assets in the new engine which isn't a massive problem but will just take some time. I'm really enjoying walking around my build with the new lighting. I have also been creating early textures for all the models which I will later go back over.

23/02/2015

Today has been a good day, I met up with Dean Grey, my website designer friend and we discussed my website in greater detail. He wanted to know what I wanted it for, what its purpose would be and how I wanted to deliver my work. I've wanted to keep it simple, minimalist and sleek, easy to navigate and straight to the point.
We came up with some really good ideas and I sketched out some layouts that I thought might work so we could then look for templates that would fit what I wanted.

Reads "Widget links to social media sites"
"Live feed of Twitter and Facebook?"
"Transition to each slide seamlessly, Possible moving images?"
It raised some questions as to how I wanted to link my social media presence and also whether I wanted to rotate my homepage images.

24/02/2015

This is the current front page of my website it has five different sections at the moment;
Interior, Exterior, Assets, Current Projects and Contact me. Each tab will take you down the main page seamlessly to that area where there are buttons that take you to a complete different page with work that fits in that category.

25/02/2015

Now that the website is somewhat up and running, I have been focusing on different content that I can place up to fill the gaps. This is a greater task than I first anticipated, I want the site to look healthy and full of content but I don't want to just throw any old images up. I need to wade through what I have and select my best work.

26/02/2015

Concentrating on some business card designs today, I've played a bit with certain images of my work with a bit of very simple text at the bottom as to not take up too much room and overlap the central image.

27/02/2015 

Today I had a chance to speak to Emma Reeve who works at the Sainbury's Centre and is currently studying Museum Studies at UEA. What I wanted to get out of this meeting was to get an idea of what kind of criteria they abide by there, the thought process that would go into arranging a collection and what sort of technological changes they had made at the Sainbury's Centre.
 To start with, she was interested in what I was doing and was keen to maybe collaborate. The Centre has an old collection in storage and they were in the process of bringing it to display. She liked the idea of this collection being used within a virtual museum with the ability for people to view it online. Having already viewed something similar on Museo Galileo website, I would be interested in producing something like this. She also talked about the Centre over the years having a very strict criteria for the way all artifacts are displayed and choreographed, but the way tourist attractions have to keep up to date with the times technologically, the Centre was on board with any advances.

After speaking to Emma, I jotted down some plinth designs for my museum. I tried to incorporate more traditional aspects, decorative ascending steps up to the top, borders, moldings, and tried to combine more modern and original designs.

I like the freedom within my museum to not be restricted by rules of how things have to look and have a uniform style,

28/02/2015

This is the submission brief I created for the open project.

01/03/2015

-Taking exciting assets I have designed and created and refining them to a more polished state for the museum.



02/03/2015

My trip to London (before Christmas) was not only used for research for my dissertation, but also to collect reference photos for the design of my museum. Below is a small selection of the photos I took at the V&A and the Natural History Museum. I focused mainly on examples of pillars and ceiling architecture as well as materials used.
Referring to these images as I go, I spent today going back through to get more inspiration for layout and details around the main hall.

The above image on the right - I particularly like the natural light let in from the ceiling combining with the localized artificial light on the artifacts.

I particularly like this layout of the smaller cabinets, a very efficient use of space that I could perhaps incorporate into my museum.

I like the dingier lighting down this corridor in the Natural History Museum. It housed many of the different animals and I like the way it's not as bright as other areas of the museum to give it more of a zoo/reptile house feel, that some of the creatures might still be alive.

I'm aware that the tile patterns, moldings, plinths and cabinet designs need to refrain from being too busy or distracting but looking through these images, the older more traditional buildings are anything but. The more modern museums (the actual buildings) such as the Sainsbury's Centre (below) favor a much more modern minimalist style where the focus truly is on just the artifacts but I think I want to avoid this sort of approach because I don't want to completely discount the classic museums. They are popular because of how impressive they are and that the buildings themselves are part of the exhibition. I want to give the audience/player the opportunity to walk around a structure that could be plausible as a real museum. I want the focus to be not solely on the work, it's more about the feel of the space and the experience had there. I think I'd like to attempt to add in more subtle details that are not too grand and overwhelming.

I also gained from the trip a great selection of images I can use for texturing whether relevant for this project or not. In the very least, it shows a variety of different materials that I can keep as a catalog.

A lot of the images I collected I chose particularly because they featured weather-stained aspects I wouldn't have been able to recreate on my own. At least with these images I can reference them when  I need something specific and I have to create them from scratch on Photoshop.
Below are a selection of images I also collected to reference from cgtextures.com.

03/03/2015

I hadn't heard from my contact abroad for a little while so I decided to give them a little nudge to find out what everyone was up to.
We are now planning on having a Skype meeting later in the week to discuss our next move and take the project further. I am really looking forward to this experience as I feel it will be a great learning opportunity for me. Also, working alongside such a diverse group of people and experiencing their methods and train of thoughts will encourage an open mind to different ideas. In the past, having been allocated and volunteered for team leader, things were done more or less my way primarily due to the lack of enthusiasm.

04/03/2015

I have put the museum on the shelf at the moment to work on updating my social media sites, Twitter, Linkin, Instagram and Facebook are all looking health put there are some areas that needed changing. I'm finding this very calming, slowly watching my numbers count up and posting what I'm up to in my work and receiving feedback from others.

05/03/2015

Today I thought it would be a good idea to test out some assets in a more natural environment rather then just have them all lined up in order. So I played with the idea of making a small room to test how they work together then I plan to show this as part of my mid term presentation.

Also after reading some articles online about the new Unreal Tournament, I thought it would be very useful for me and also a fun side project if I downloaded the game and the level editors so I could create my own mods and levels. This is something I've been looking to do with games for a long time but have never really put much thought into it. Now I have the means to create elements for my project and also incorporate them into other pieces of work, I couldn't really say no.

06/03/2015

I have been creating more towards the small mock level that I want to show during the mid term presentation. I am still having difficulties with lighting but its all working in my favor as I have now joined several online forums that focus on Unreal Engine 4 and I plan to make more contacts through this and hopefully some friends that will also share my ideas for the project.

07/03/2015

Working more on the mock level for my presentation, I have now added more assets to fill the space and to give an idea of scale. The lighting is still atmospheric so I will need to sort out point lighting later on but just to get an idea of the layout.

I wanted to display a range of different materials as well as a possible plinth and bench designs to hopefully get get some feedback on whether it's a good start.

08/03/2015

I've been working on creating a board game in my spare time. Its a small game that is very much like the game King of tokyo and monopoly. It is only in the paper stages atm and I may put it aside to focus on the project.

Most of today has been a massive talk about what we aim to do for this team project. We have gone into great depth with ideas on how we can create this experience and what we wish to achieve. From my understanding everyone wanted to create a very unique and engaging experience which will have a lasting effect on the viewer. 

I have managed to get a copy of all the notes of our discussion along with a plan of action. I really want to hit while the iron is hot and create something as part of an enthusiastic team. I am still very skeptical of team projects ever since my disappointing experience I had as part of the course, though these people sought out me so they must be enthusiastic to achieve something.

13/03/2015

This morning I had a talk with Nigel and Sharon about the progress of my work and how I felt everything was going, I was very pleased with the feedback and I'm very happy with the direction my work is going. I am still in a state of disbelief that I have managed to sort out and find work outside of university and I'm very thankful to be given the chance to work as part of a creative team.

Below is the proceedings/transcript of our meeting and what gives an overall idea of what we plan to do:

'GRUS LABORATORY
-PLATFORM PAINTED ON THE FLOOR
-KIDS STANDING N THE PLATFORM
-THEN THE VR MAKES YOU SEE LIKE YOU’RE GOING THROUGH THE LAB 
-GOING TO CAPTURE THE MOON THEME 

LES - SAYS ITS POSSIBLE TO GET AN IMAGE AND PLASTER IT ON AN AVATAR - WITH THAT PERSONS FACE ON IT, WALKING AROUND IN THE ENVIRONMENT

IT WILL CONNECT THROUGH THE INTERNET
WHEN WE GET THE IMAGE OF THE FACE IT WILL GOT OFF THE INTERNET
SERVERS WILL TAKE THE IMAGE PLASTER IT ON AVATAR SKIN AND SEND IT BACK IN RECOMPOSED

THE WAY THIS WOULD WORK IS THAT THE PACKAGE WOULD BE A WEB BASED SYSTEM THAT A PERSON COULD USE THAT AND INTERACT WITH OTHER PEOPLE IF SIMILAR AVATARS ARE ALREADY MADE

WHEN THEY GO HOME THEY CAN LOG IN AND EXPLORE THE SPACE EVEN MORE

When they go home they can meet other people from the convention and interact in the environment.
The only stipulation is that it’s still a service - because it runs on commercial servers. 
If I was a person who had it, yeah I could make an impression at the convention but the lasting impression is for them to come back over and over again.
A single event you can learn something but if you have that event and the next day you have the event again.. thats going to make a lasting impression that will be long term impression that will stay with them for years. 

IDEA!!!!
What we will do is create a virtual convention space, and allow vendors to come in.. hold virtual conferences and sponsors can sponsor it.. but people can continue to come back for time to go.

Les’s friend is doing a neural haptic bodysuit - has electrodes so whenever you bump into something you’ll feel it. if you’re playing call of duty, you’ll feel pressure against your chest. 

 LES  WANTS TO SEE A QUICK PROOF OF CONCEPT - NOTHING FANCY BUT GETS THE PROCESS STARTED - GETS HIM AND ZAK WORKING TOGETHER, MAKES IT A DEMONSTRABLE CONCEPT, WORK OUT A LOT OF LITTLE THINGS WE DON'T USUALLY SEE. 

IT ALL RUNS ON A BROWSER - INSTEAD OF A WEB APP OR WINDOWS, ETC… AND RIGHT NOW GOOGLE AND MOZILLA FIREFOX ARE WORKING ON WEB VR THAT ALLOWS YOU TO PLUG IN YOUR OCULUS RIFT INTO RS232? OR TABLET/LAPTOP AND HAVE A VR EXPERIENCE ON YOUR BROWSER.

HOWEVER THAT'S IN BETA. 

So this will be more like a traditional video games. kind of like second life .. a NETWORK MMO  like call of duty, etc. 
If you lose connection? then the characters will freeze. you’ll still run and you can still do stuff but the characters wont run. 
it can be MMO .
you can also group people so you can have your friends or family.. if its a company and products = a representative can drop in.. 

you know how  you have an online chat - a live chat? well you can have a live avatar from a representative of the company - like a sponsor.

ALSO CAN BE USED FOR REALTORS - BIG HOMES COULD BE CAPTURED IN VR - AND SHOWN…
VIRTUAL REALITY IKEA - COULD WORK OUT THE DIMENSIONS OF YOUR ROOM. BUT YOU CAN CHOOSE A PIECE OF FURNITURE. YOU’RE PREVIEWING THE FIT BEFORE PURCHASING IT. 

FOR TOMORROW

ZAK IS MAKING STORYBOARDS 
LES WANTS TO SEE A SIMPLE MOCKUP SO HE CAN START TESTING IT OUT AND GETTING THE ROUGH EDGES OUT - FILED OFF
8PM EST - 12PM 
___________________________________________________________________________

THURSDAY CHAT
ZAK
Made a mockup - in meters using Unreal VR development - for sizing 

LES
WILL WE NEED A LEVEL OF DETAILING? 

level of detail for 4 dimensions - 4 dimensions because when something is real far away such as clouds, the pace of which animation needs to run is very slow.. just so happens that time as a fourth dimension works as level of detailing.. if you’re looking at something real close you want a real high tempo to it.. and I also use it for the same reason if you have avatars moving off in the distance, you dont need to see them at 120 fps you can probably get by with 30 or even 15 and it wouldn't even matter.. then if up close a higher res is appropriate

THE WAY IT WILL GO - YOU STAND ON PLATFORM… GO DOWN INTO THE LAB.. AND THEN THE PLATFORM RISES BACK TO THE MAIN FLOOR PLATFORM.. SO DOWN AND UP.

LAB IS SHAPED LIKE AN HOUR GLASS. 

DO YOU ACTUALLY GO THROUGH LAYERS?
BOUNDARIES LAYERS AND BRIDGES
BASICALLY ONE OPEN PLAN WHERE MAKESHIFT 
LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE GOING THROUGH DIFFERENT LAYERS


ARE YOU ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE PODIUM? NO.. BUT HOW YOU LEAN.. YOU CAN MOVE TO A CERTAIN EXTENT.. 
ENOUGH WHERE YOU CAN GET QUITE CLOSE TO WHAT IS HAPPENING

USES MAYA - CURRENTLY LEARNING AND TRYING THE UNREAL ENGINE - YOU CAN THROW RUBBISH INTO THE UNREAL ENGINE AND IT LOOKS GOOD

LES SAID:
I MADE AN ANIMATION OF A HEART FOR A MEDICAL COMPANY
LES USED ONE IMAGE SEGMENTED INTO TILES, THE WHOLE THIGN TURNS INTO ONE IMAGE, THE TILE SEQUENCE 30X SECOND BUT THE SOFTWARE I WROTE FOR THAT YOU CAN SPECIFY THE SIZE OF EACH TILE AND THE TIME PERIOD EACH ONE HAS WHETHER ITS 13 OR 32 IN A SEQUENCE IN THAT FORMAT THAT I ALREADY DEVELOPED WE CAN DO 1 OR 2 SECOND ANIMATION WITHOUT A VIDEO ENCODER OR DECODER THING… MADE FOR 1 OR 2 HEARTBEAT SEGMENTS

ALL TEXTURES HAVE TO BE IN THE POWER OF 2X square size 
like a 1x1 texture or  4X4 or 16x16 or the sizes you’ll be using.. 
ZAK MAKES THEM IN 248X248 

RETINA MEANS THAT THE RESOLUTION WHAT YOUR EYE CAN ACTUALLY SEE
right now Google and Mozilla have VR in beta once everything goes to release it will be cast in stone and they will go through everything that isn't right for the application.. chances are i wil have built a lot of that - the deprecated features into the software so its very likely not to work when it goes to release.

ZAK - we’ll have to rely on Les’ engine or whatever engine to render it in real time.. the dynamic lighting and the textures rendering in real time. They will look really good but they wont look like a film. 

LES - I get one light source at the moment - OPENGL gives you up to 8 light sources.  LightGL
aerokeys and ASDW Keys WSD GAMING NAVIGATION KEYS and a trackpad mouse to look up and down. 

Oculus Crescent Bay - accelerometers included?  - needed to move the platform either that or a joystick. 

In Unreal - they say do you want to make this Oculus? 

ZAK - 106 light source, might be an issue? 

REACH OUT TO OCULUS RIFT - GET CRESCENT BAY HEADSETS

IF LEE DECIDES HE WANTS TO DO A MAZE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, HE COULD GET HIS IPAD, CREATE A MAZE, THE VR ENVIRONMENT AND THAT COULD CREATE ITSELF. 

FOR THE CONFERENCE ITSELF.. SAY SOMEONE IN THE US WANTED TO SHARE THEIR IDEAS - SAY ARCHITECTS - THERE WAS  CONFERENCE ENVIRONMENT PLAN FOR A PARK OR MUSEUM AND THEY HAVE THE BLUEPRINT FOR THE MUSEUM ALREADY THEY CAN CREATE AN ALPHA MAP - A BW BLUEPRINT OF WHATS HIGH AND LOW INTO AN ENVIRONMENT AND A COMPUTER CAN FFIG TERRAIN AND SCALE  - FEED INFO IN AND TABLE CAN CREATE THAT AS A BASIC CUBIC MODEL SO EVERYONE CAN SEE IT. 

SEEMS LIKE A QUICK AND EASY 

TO SOMEONE IN THE UK, THEY CAN DRAW ON THE TABLET, IT WOULD CREATE THE VIRTUAL REALITY. 


WATCH BRITISH SHERLOCK - HAS HOLOLENS TYPE GLASS WHICH GIVES ANYONES INFORMATION THROUGH OLD TIME SPECTACLES. JUST IMAGINE IF 

LES QUESTIONS: ZAK YOU MENTIONED ALPHA MAP? YOU MEANT AN ALPHA CHANNEL - TRANSPARANCIES RIGHT? 
ZAK - I MEANT HIGH MAP
LES - I THINK I HAVE SOMETHING LIKE YOU DESCRIBED - WHICH I'M CURRENTLY WORKING ON - ITS A VR CAD SYSTEM SO YOU CAN LAY OUT A PORTION OF A WORKSPACE AND START LAYING OUT WALLS AND FLOOR PLANS SO THE KEY FEATURES OF THAT ITS IN A 3D ENVIRONMENT AND 2 ITS COLLABORATIVE SO YOU CAN HAVE GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS IN GROUPS WITH CERTAIN PRIVILEGES AND ONE PERSON CAN SEIZE CONTROL OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND DRAW OUT A WALLAD ANOTHER PERSON CAN MODIFY THAT, SO YOU CAN TAKE TURNS, W/O 3 PEOPLE TRYING TO DO THINGS AT THE SAME TIME.. 
AND YOU ALSO HAVE PRIVILEGES AND ONE PERSON CAN MAKE THE WORKSPACE, WHEREAS OTHERS CAN ADD TO IT, OR A 3RD PERSON MIGHT BE ABLE TO VIEW AND MAKE COMMENTS. 

Then on top of that there’s work flow - history and undo. I think I’m working on something similar to what you’re talking about. I already have some more advanced features that you can use for analyzing air flow and things like that. 
Look at potential traffic patterns and how you use landscape and things like that. 
Working in a distributed cloud system - the way that works is completely different than if you're just programming a PC, we could be collaborating from different continents so that has implications on how its implemented so it makes it a lot harder than regular PC programming. 

The model for hosting versus content - so the minions and the graphic and the logos and the way it works is content - thats his.. but the hosting - its like an operating system.. i designed a lot of architecture around that… have something called a virtual machine that runs on the client that’s bicodes - his program can be composed of that.. the actual virtual machine can be used for many things. 

SHOULD WE ASK WHAT THE BUDGET?

I PERSONALLY WOULD LIKE TO HAVE IT INTEGRATED INTO THE HEADSET. 

I’M NERVOUS ONCE ITS INTEGRATED WITH FIREFOX .. IT WONT WORK

RIGHT NOW THEY ARE BUILDING UP THEIR VERSIONS THAT WORK WITH THE HEADSETS.. THEY’RE TRYING THIS AND TRYING THAT.. ITS A NEW DESIGN SPACE.. THEY’RE FINDING BETTER WAYS OF COMBINING DIFFERENT CALLS THAT ARE THE SAME… SO NOW IS VERY VERBOSE WAY OF DOING SOMETHING WHEN THEY COME OUT WITH THE FINAL RELEASE VERSION THEY WILL WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAN AND CRISP.. ONCE YOU RELEASE THE API AS THE RELEASE ITS CAST IN STONE  AND THERE'S NO GOING BACK SO THEY'LL WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHINGS NEAT AND CLEAN SO IT CAN BE USED WIDELY BUT ALSO BRIEF BECAUSE WHAT THEY CAST IN STONE AS NA API FOR DEVELOPERS WILL BE THEIR WORST NIGHTMARE IF ITS NOT DONE RIGHT. 

THOSE ARE ALMOST FROM DEVELOPER GURUS - ONCE AN API IS RELEASED 

ON THE BLEEDING EDGE - BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING TO GET CUT AND ITS GONNA HURT

IT WILL WORK ONLY WITH THAT PARTICULAR BROWSER - IT MIGHT WORK WITH A LITTLE LATER.. BUT AS SOON AS IT COMES TO VERSION 1.0 - from their point of view they can.. and they will want to make sure its exactly the way they want to live with it. 

HOW MUCH OF A PAIN IN THE ASS WILL IT BE TO TRANSFER THIS TECHNOLOGY OVER 

ZAK WILL CREATE THE CONTENT 
THE PLATFORM WILL HOST IT SO WHEN OCULUS RIFT CHANGES AND THE BROWSERS CHANGE, I CAN MAKE ALL THOSE CHANGES ON THE PLATFORM BUT THE CONTENT WILL BE THE SAME SO THE IDEAS IS AS THE TECHNOLOGY CHANGES AND UPDATES, THAT'S JUST A PLATFORM CONCERN AND NOT A TECHNOLOGY CONCERN..
THOSE PLATFORMS ARE RUNNING SEPARATELY..


WHEN WE WERE TALKING ABOUT HAPTIC FEEDBACK SUIT, THE CEO IS REALLY HAPPY WITH THE APPROACH THEY ARE TAKEN, IF THEY WANT TO USE THAT FOR A GAME, THE GAME HAS TO BE WRITTEN EXCLUSIVELY FOR THAT - HOW MANY COMPANIES WOULD WANT THAT? NOT TOO MANY… BUT IF YOU HAVE CONTENT CREATORS  AND THEY MAKE THE CONTENT AND THE GAME MECHANICS AND ALL THAT.. AND THERE'S THE PLATFORM, IF THE PLATFORM SUDDENLY SUPPORTS IT, THEN EVERY GAME FOR THAT PLATFORM WILL NOW HAVE ITS SUIT.. AUTOMATICALLY.. LETS SAY WE HAVE 200 TITLES ON THAT PLATFORM.. MOST OF THOSE PLATFORMS WOULD WORK. 

I'M SUPPOSEDLY WORKING WITH A GUY WHO HAS OCULUS AND MOTION CAPTURE SUIT.. 

I THINK GOOGLE IS COMING OUT WITH THEIR OWN HEADSET AND I THINK RAZOR IS THE OPEN SOURCE VR - AND THEY CHOSE TO STICK WITH THE OCULUS RIFT INTERFACE..

BU THE IDEA IS THAT THE PLATFORM WILL RUN OCULUS RIFT AND WILL BE ADAPTED TO WORK WITH HOLOLENS OR WHATEVER GOOGLE COMES OUT WITH… SORT OF LIKE A DRIVER. 


AT SOME POINT THEY HAVE TO CONNECT TO THE WEBSITE TO GET THE PLATFORM GOING.S WE WILL HAVE TO DO THE HOSTING AND AS I UNDERSTAND IT YOU CAN BASICALLY MAKE A WEB APP THAT IS A DEDICATED BROWSER TO RUN THE WEBSITE. 

WHAT WE WILL DO IS MAKE A WEBSITE AND AS SOON AS YOU GET THERE THEN POOF! YOU GO INTO THE VR SPACE - THE WAY ITS SET UP.. AND THERE’S A WAY TO CREATE A WEB APP SO ITS A CLICKABLE ICON ON DESKTOP THAT OPENS TO A DEDICATED WEBSITE ON BROWSER.

IT’S LIKE AN MMO SO IF YOU GO ONTO A LOGO AND YOU START ASENDNG AND SOMEONE ELSE GOES ON ( YOU HAVE 3-4 DISPLAYS RUNNING) AND THEY GO TO A LOGO AND THEY GO ON. YOU CAN SEE EACH OTHER FROM EACH OTHERS PERSPECTIVE AND THEY CAN LOOK AT EACH OTHER AND SEE WHAT HTE OTHER PERSON IS DOING.. SO ITS LIKE AN MMO. 

THEY CAN CREATE THEIR OWN USER NAME LIKE ZAKFIELD007 - HAVE THE CAMERA TAKE A QUICK SHOT OF HIM AND DO A QUICK BOX OVER HIS FACE, TAKE THAT WRAP IT ON AN AVATAR, AND THAT MAKES HIM HAVE HIS FACE ON IT.. WHEN YOU GO HOME, LOG IN WITH YOUR NAME AND YOU'RE PRESENTED AS AN AVATAR…AND ITS ALL THE SAME.. IF YOU WANT TO SEE MORE YOU CAN SEE. 


ZAK - WILL YOU BE PRINTING A FLAT AVATAR? OR LIKE A BASIC MESH OF THE FACE?
IT WILL BE A VERY LOOSE NARRATIVE
INSTEAD OF AN ACTUAL PERSON GOING ON THE PAD AT THE BEGINNING
OR - YOU HEAR A SCIENTIST SAYING… WE’RE GOIN TO MAKE YOU A MINION

OR HAVE YOUR FACE PRINTED ON ITS BELLY
OR ITS YOU IN A MINION SUIT?
OR YOUR FACE ON TOP OF THE MINION AVATAR 

LES - THE WAY I WAS PRESENTING IT WAS - IF YOU EVER GO TO THOSE FASHION RETAIL STORE - NEIMAN MARCUS? REALLY SIMPLISTIC MANNEQUINS? LIKE THOSE BASIC SHAPES? IMAGINE 

ZAK - WE’VE TRIED DOING THAT BEFORE.. YOU RUN THE RISK OF UNCANNY VALLEY ROUTE? ACCIDENTALLY MAKE SOMETHING SCARY LOOKING.. I WAS THINKING OF THE TELLY TUBBY ROUTE? I THINK PRINTING THE FACE ON THE BELLY 

USING A GREEN SCREEN AND CAMERA - TAKE A PICTURE TAKEN AND THEN WILL BE PLACED ON THE AVATAR FACE 

AT THE END THEY CAN HAVE A PRINT OUT OF THEIR AVATAR FACE

Okay log on and user name - shows picture of face and you move around

MAKING THINGS EASY IS HARD TO DO =

UNDER THE ASSUMPTION 1 OR 2 PEOPLE AT A TIME. UNTIL THE GIFT SHOP PHASE AND THEN BE GIVEN A PHOTO AT THE END. 
worst case is you manually have to take a picture and load it in and then go 

ELIMINATE THE HASSLE OF SEEING EACH OTHER - THAT WOULD CREATE THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE

ELIMINATE PROBLEMS BY RUNNING THE SAME SIMULATION AT ONCE  - 

\
YOU COULD ACTUALLY HAVE GPS ON EACH TRUCK COLLECTING DATA AND YOU COULD WATCH THE PROJECT AS ITS HAPPENING IN VR
AS A TRUCK MOVES OR THE BULLDOZER DROPS STUFF YOU CAN SEE IT IN REAL TIME AND YOU COLD POSSIBLY WATCH ASSETS OR PEOPLE AND SEE WHERE THEY ARE.. IF YOUR JOB IS TO MAKE SURE THIS DEBRIS IS DUMPED AT A CERTAIN PLACE YOU CAN GO BACK IN HISTORY AND VERIFY THAT THEY ACTUALLY DID THOSE OPERATIONS BUT YOU CAN DO THIS FROM THE BEACH WHILE ON VACATION= BUT YOU CAN MAKE SURE THE PROJECT IS ON TARGET - AND USE TABLET OR SOON OCULUS RIFT AND JUST BE THERE


I DESIGNED A 3D INTERACTIVE FACE FOR FIRE ENGINES INSTEAD OF PUMP CONTROLS FROM THE 1900S - THEY HAVE A 22 INCH TOUCH SCREEN DISPLAY AND YOU INTERACT WITH FIRETRUCK THROUGH A 3D INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE THE GAMIFICATION OF THAT JOB.

I DESIGNED AN INTERFACE THAT ACTUALLY WORKS.. I ACTUALLY HAD A 50 LB VALVE ON MY DESK - THAT I CONTROLLED USING INTERACTIVE 3D AND SHOWED PRESSURE IN REAL TIME. YOU'RE A FIRE CHIEF AND THERE WAS A BIG FIRE AND YOU WANTED TO SEE WHAT S going ON AT PARTICULAR ENGINE U COULD DO THAT.. THIS IS WHATS GOING ON WITH THE PARTICULAR PUMP AND ENGINE. YOU have A VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT GAGE THAT SHOWS YOU WHERE THE PRESSURE OF THE WATER IS. 
daytime displayable touch screen - COST $12K - when I wasn't using it my son would use it

whats your favorite project you worked on? I designed a genetic algorithms to make suggestions for buy and sell trades, over the course of 3 months I made an 8 fold return. One thing these companies are doing is high frequency trading - there's a lag time on particular stocks 
minuscule amount of time and you sell it - you keep playing with the high frequency buy and sell.. that's how they make money.. its kind of a game or hack… what I did was I predicted the buy and the sell… what stocks are good to buy and good to sell.. that's all you want. you don't care about he price as long as you make money? the beauty of the algorithms - I used 8 variables, open close volume capitalization and all based on end of day data, made daily buys and daily sells based on a longer period of time, an 8 dimensional space, 8 variables, completely unfathomable to understand this space, but the algorithms don't care, they just work, with trans humanism… 

the imitation game with alan turning.. but one of the theorems. he stated that if  you can get a machine that acts exactly like a person so you cant tell the difference if you're talking to a person or a machine then that machine can be deemed intelligent.. 

if you could get a chatbot that was so refined that you couldn't tell it was a chatbot was a real person.. .when you're thinking of trans humanism.. you take their image, body movements, their reactions and what they do, you make a big body of data and an algorithms that could replicate that and enough algorithms you could recreate that person so you couldn't know if its a real person or a bot that's doing it.. if you cant tell the difference than that bot would be considered intelligence.

dynamic mirror image.. you know how in science fiction they always talk about teleportation well you can either fly down tot he planet or teleport.. well its not so easy because teleportation basically takes a facsimile of yourself at the destination and in order to keep from over duplicated  and the facsimile of you will be recreated so every time they teleport they destroy themselves and recreate themselves at the end. so its better just to fly.. instead of destroying…

would you still have a soul on the other side? 

we can theorize all we want but until we actually do it .. we’re just not going to know

IS ANYONE ELSE DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS?  TURNING A MINION 

ESPECIALLY IF WE CAN MEET OUTSIDE OF THE EXPERIENCE  -

AT THAT POINT IF WE WILL BE DOING IT FROM HOME. 


THERE'S A MINON RIDE IN UNIVERSAL STUDIOS  - IN THE VIDEO THERES NO FACE OF HTE PERSON IN THE VIDEO - THERES A PREANIMATED FAMILY BUT THEY DONT HAVE THEIR OWN FACES ON THEIR FACE OR BELLY. GOES STRAIGHT FROM BEING HUMAN TO GREEN PUFF OF SMOKE TO BEING HUMAN BUT IF YOU HAVE AN MMO WHEN YOU SEE YOUR FRIENDS AND THEIR MINION THEN THAT WILL BE LIKE A MARKETING POINT OF VIEW AND U CAN GO AWAY WITH YOUR OWN WEBSITE AND MMO 

LES WILL BE WORKING ON THE PLATFORM  THAT RAISES AND MAYBE THE BARS THAT RAISE UP.. I WAS THINKING YOU HAD POLES RISING? I WAS THINKING WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE TO HAVE THE RAILS AND THE POLE AT THE SAME TIME? THERE'S A RING AROUND THE LOGO THAT WOULD LIFT UP? BASICALLY THE ROOM AROUND THE LOGO ITSELF WILL RAISE UP AND THEN GO 

ZAK - WILL BE WORKING ON MORE SKETCHES LAYERS TO MAKE IT MORE SCI FI LOOKING - WILL LOOK AT RAW CONCEPT ARTWORK OF THE CREATE OWN ASSETS IN THAT STYLE AND AS SOON AS WE NEED THEM WILL MAKE A CATALOG OF PARTS WE CAN USE FOR LEVEL EDITING PURPOSES FOR THE MMO OR ACTUAL SIMULATION 

LES- I CAN PROBABLY ACTUALLY HAVE A REAL MMO?

ONCE YOU GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING, YOU CAN BE FREE TO MOVE AROUND… THEN YOU COULD ACTUALLY BE MORE OF AN INTRODUCTORY THING 

Instead of actual platform movable as the accelerometer - could actually have a prebuilt tracks.. still look around 

if we did the actual simulation as the intro to the MMO we can have a pre built track through the laboratory saving us hassle with bulding a more complex piece and have pure set pieces introducing slowly into the MMO transition nicely from the convention to the MMO scene. 

rather than creating a full loop, you end up in Gru’s living room.. because in the film that’s how you get into the lab.. so when guests go back home and log in through computer.. they can be in Gru's living room.

WE CAN LOOK INTO GETTING A MINION AND RIGGING IT - WE CAN GET THE GROUND WORK

WE CAN DO PREINTERACTIVE PEOPLE AND IF WE ARE CLEVER WITH SCALE WE CAN GIVE 

Above is the storyboard that I created for this project.

14/03/2015

I have been working more on the projects with Katie and Les today, making mock level designs for a laboratory. It was only a very quick mock up but it gave the rest of the team a general idea of what I was planning, It gained a positive response as neither of them had the ability to create something in a 3D space. I still have some issues with the design and there are areas that I am unsure what they want from the experience but hopefully we will get these sorted sooner rather then later.  

As I managed to create the scenes during the Skype call, there are many things I am unhappy with and plan to refine in the designing process. I am really enjoying working with this group as they seem very enthusiastic about their work and confident when discussing ideas and outcomes.
These are skills I wish to build on for myself, I need to be more confident in what I know and not doubt myself so much and put myself down before I even start.

15/03/2015

These are a few of the concept images from Despicable Me that I took inspiration from. I wanted to keep to the same art style and conventions that the film is recognized for.

16/03/2015

So my friend Michael McDonagh the gentlemen I did the games interview with posted the final cut online today. It was really surreal watching myself talk about my work, It was a nice change of position and it also helped me refocus on the task at hand as I feel that lately my interest and drive have been fluxing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_petBIjXYZM
http://breakthroughgaming.co.uk/tag/zak-field/

Proof that the games art design course go outside and talk to each other!

A lot of us were feeling stressed with work and our projects so wanted to have a little get together and discuss our ideas in a more relaxed setting so I set up a small group meal.
This worked a lot better then I first planned as there was a mixed of all the different pathways on the course taking interest in each others work and looking on it with new eyes.
I came up with a good couple ideas that I hadn't previously thought about thanks to this meal I will certainly consider doing this again later down the line. Plus you can't go wrong with Mexican food.

17/03/2015

Practicing my presentation has been my main goal for today, I didn't want to overload myself with stress and work as I wanted to be wide awake and looking fresh when I had to show my work. I have now compiled all my slides in a nice narrative order to show my progression and I am just ironing out the kinks and getting my head around what I want to say.


18/03/2015

Whilst looking around my level first person I thought some of my assets looked very out of place and unnatural. My main issue was that doors very obviously looked stuck on and fake and ruined the immersion for me. I had a quick look at other doorways from my reference images and had a very quick tweak of the models to create a more sunk in door frame. 

In my option this looks a lot more effective then just having the door stuck on a flat surface. I will have to take more consideration into the detail and positioning of things later on in the build. I am glad this problem arouse as I feel this has been a beneficial step towards making a more realistic environment instead of just clumping any old thing together without planning. These are the little details that you don't tend to look too closely at when you're actually in a space but you'll certainly notice if they're incorrect.

The addition of the doors I think works really well because it adds to the realism of the museum; it would be bigger than just the one room, it gives the illusion of a larger level.

19/03/2015

So today I had my mid term presentation with the head of my course. I feel it went really well and I received some really good feedback on my work and how I can progress.

First, I displayed some images of the mock level I had created as a test environment which I plan to use when I create the brief for the public. They may then create and design their own work to be housed within my museum.

The comments I received on this were mostly positive with the slight downfall the lecturer pointed out that there may be too many interesting and busy textures in the room which may draw the eye away from the exhibits themselves.
I understood what she meant as the ceiling and the floor are very high in detail so I may look back into different ceiling styles and have a play with different ideas.

I also talked about wanting to create a catalog of game assets for my own personal use in the future. I would have a foundation of work to start with, rather than making everything from scratch and I could just make main features and items when needed. Another reason I have considered doing this is because I could possibly make small item backs to sell on an online marketplace.

I discussed my online presence and my portfolio of work so far, I have managed to create a large following for my work and have built many connections with people in different areas of games and technology. I am very pleased with what I've built so far and wish to grow my followers even further, I really enjoy the interaction with other creative minds and the discussions, along with the idea generation that comes with it.

Very quickly discussed the website and my plans of layout along with presentation.

One of the main things I wanted to mention during the presentation was how I'd like to exhibit my work during the end of year show. I was thinking about creating high quality rendered images which I would like framed and placed on the walls of the exhibition though the problem with that would be finding space as we do not have a very large area to show everybody's work. So I may just create these for myself as I would like to have a physical copy of my work that I'm most proud of.
A virtual space to explore my museum would be something I'd very much like to have for the exhibition, either have a computer running with my level on so that I can let the public navigate my world or have a VR headset running so that the public can explore first person. I was told there are others on my course that wish to do much the same thing with their projects so I might get in contact with them to see if there is a way we can collaborate and work together to get a more streamlined way to display our work.

And of course all the projects I'm working on outside of my course work. I am still in a state of disbelief that I have managed to get to a point where people wish to work with me and this just makes me want to push further with my work and better myself in all areas. It is still a massive boost to my confidence when I talk to people from different counties about working together and bettering each other's work.

What I've taken away from the presentation?
I received a lot good feedback from this session, one thing that was mentioned was that there was many busy textures in my mock level so it might be worth looking into different materials for the design as to not distract the player from the subjects being exhibited rather than pulling the attention to the environment.

Also I was asked to work on and promote the university games magazine for my course and also promote the end of year show. I would quite happily take part in this as I can use the work and experience towards my final submission.


20/03/2015

This Friday we had a guest lecture from Phil Parker about BCre8ive.
Bcre8tive is a website that helps creatives to keep their work safe online and to be part of a community of like minded people that want to explore new ideas and meet new people.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZx6AubagRY&feature=youtu.be)

I very much support this concept and will be keeping an eye on its progression, I feel this would be a great benefit to my work. I managed to have a small chat with Phil one to one and I discussed that I very much like the concept of meeting creative people online forming a group and being able to share work seamlessly and have it all time stamped and safe encase any legal issues arose.  

23/03/2015

I have been looking into other museum type structures, both in and outside of games and how the areas have been textured to not over power the items being shown but also create a unique feel and personality when being explored.

I wanted to use Wolfenstein the new order as an example as they have a lot of grey and concrete  tones that are used very effectively to create an effective atmosphere in the level.

The deteriorated style of this level is not only accentuated by the dingy lighting but also by the roughed up walls, cracks and water stains. These are all the smaller details that add to the overall atmosphere of the level and these are the sorts of thing I need to consider for my level.

24/03/2015

I was having a bit of a low day today so thought I'd do something to cheer myself up. I knew that I wanted paintings in my museum but I wasn't sure what of to start with. Most of the artwork would be submitted by other for the exhibition but I wanted to create something to get a rough idea of size and scale.

Taking inspiration from portraits of Walt Disney, Andrew Ryan (Bioshock), Cave Johnson (Portal 2) and other more traditional works I used Photoshop to manipulate images of myself into a more painterly style that would fit within the world I was creating.

25/03/2015

After creating the frames and placing the assets into the museum to see how they looked I kept getting distracted by the character model when entering first person mode. I knew I would have to sort this at some point so might as well tackle it sooner rather then later.

I didn't change anything too crazy just entered the event graph and disconnected a couple of pathways to disable the projectiles.

Then did the same again for the animation of the arms so that you couldn't see them whilst your character was walking.

When placed on the wall, I played with the spotlight lighting on the portrait to find out how different materials reacted to different lights and to get a better understanding of how PBR (physical based rendering) works in the new engine.

26/03/2015

Rapid Expansion was the aim for today, I thought I was spending too much time on a small space that was only being used s an example piece.

Things are now starting to shape up and look like a real level now. I'm very pleased with the outcomes although I have been altering some assets and they don't look quite right from a first person perspective.

29/03/2015

Designing shirts with Luke Hickman Fine Art Student:

'Collaboration with Zak Field Games art and design Year 3 and Luke Hickman Fine Art Year 3.
During the last 2 months of our time at Norwich University of the Arts, Luke Hickman Fine Art year and a fellow student Zak Field who studies Games Art and Design were discussing collaborating on a project together to produce T-shirts. There are a wide variety of designs that we have come up with which span from gaming to politics, we share many of the same interests and also wide skill set ranging from digital design and 3D modelling to the many branches of print making. We both have shared vision to promote these locally using a network of students to promote our work and also social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. The work we do will not be restricted to our own designs as we are open to commission work and also plan on expanding from just t-shirts printing to include posters and eventually 3D printing.

Production Method

Using Luke Hickmans knowledge of screen printing to produce these T-shirts and also owning the equipment cuts down a lot of the production costs. Luke recently acquired a Epson 7600 which allows us to digitally print images up to the size of A1, this comes in handy when screen print because you have to print your designs onto acetate and to allow you to expose them onto the screen for printing but also lets us commission artwork from outside parties. Screen printing is a simple process of creating stencils for each colour of your chosen design, these will act as layers working from light to dark to create your final image. Shown below are some images of the set up that Luke built, building the exposure unit and the table were the key to allow me to print from home costing only £50 and using found materials such as doors to make the table top.

Exposure Unit

Screen print table and Epson 7600 printer

Shown below is an example of another collaboration that we had with 2 other students at university who are starting up their own clothing brand called Fruitshop Skateboarding, we took a commission from them to print 5 T-shirts with their logo and brand name on, they were not charged for this because the equipment had not been tested the time but the results came out as expected which was positive.

Now knowing that the equipment and methods we used to print these shirts with work, we discussed taking this further and begin printing our own designs but this will have to be postponed until after we hand in our university projects because it will take up quite a lot of time. Below are a few examples of work by Zak Field which would be used for T-Shirts.

Below are a few copies of Luke's work which he will be printing for the degree show.

01/04/2015


Let it be known that I very much dislike stairs at this point in time. After importing my Maya model into UE4 I found that a lot of my scaling was off by a very small amount, At first, this wasn't a huge issue although now that I am adding more and more assets, the small amount is adding up.

Another issue I had with the stairs was that the collisions were playing up and not allowing the player to walk up the stairs correctly. I found a way of sorting this by giving the steps rounded edges for the time being until I just remove the individual collisions and add one larger collision that covers the whole staircase.

I decided to take out the center block from the stairs as I felt it broke up the shape to much and looked very out of place. I plan to replace this with a small hand rail that will travel up the middle and along the outer walls.

Also one other issue that I found and can't quite figure out was that the resolution dropped on this asset. I've checked the textures and the files and all seems well but I might just save myself hassle and completely recreate the textures for this piece.

02/04/2015

This large block near the stairs I think is taking up too much space and could be put to better use. It could possibly be lowered and be used to house a larger, more impressive exhibit. It would also open up the room a lot more and create such a shadow.

03/04/2015

This is a test to get the correct lighting for the museum so to not rely on natural or standard atmospheric light. This is very much a trial and error period and basically just gaining some knowledge.

04/04/2015

I didn't want to get rid of the mock level I had already created so I decided to add it onto the main hall as a smaller side exhibition space. It was also a good way to show a variety of architecture and a good comparison of the larger more impressive space to the smaller somewhat intimate space. It also gave the layout a bit more depth.

06/04/2015

Today I decided to work on the roof of the museum. I plan to get the ceilings sorted very quickly so that I can get all the artificial lighting sorted for each room. Then I can start to populate all the rooms with items.

07/04/2015

Norwich Gaming Festival what a crazy day this was, I turned up to my shift early afternoon and I helped meet and greet people of all ages into the gaming world. I really enjoyed the whole week of the festival. I met some really nice game developers that were starting off straight from university all across the UK. We did the usual exchange of names and websites, though they had something that I hadn't yet sorted out. Business cards. This was a real kick in the backside, I like to pride myself on my networking yet I'd over looked the importance of something so vital.

08/04/2015

So hyped! You can now apply to be part of the 2015 Dare to be Digital event. I cannot wait for this. I've been waiting to do this event since before I started the course. I've now found out that they have changed the formula of the event so I am looking forward to a new challenge.
I plan to speak to my lecturers and my fellow students to find out who else wishes to take part. I plan to collaborate with friends I know work well together and that will pull their weight. I do not want to make the same mistake as I did in the last team project and work with people I get along with outside of the course who were lazy and didn't commit to the team.

09/04/2015

After talking to some people on the course about Dare to be Digital myself, a friend of mine and I decided to meet up a the pub and talk about possible ideas we would like to take forward into development.
We spoke about different themes and styles that the game could have along with different platforms and play styles.
I liked the idea of using South African ideas and themes to base a game on I feel it is an area that would be great to explore and has a rich and deep cultural background with great material that hasn't yet been utilized.
We also noted down different games that we felt worked well on different platforms, we wanted to create something fast paced that was addictive and easy to pick up. We thought the mobile and tablet would work best for this kind of game, since many of us had our phones out at the time and often checked games we were playing throughout this talk we could see how many people wanted accessibility when playing games. Either on a journey or just something to kill time with these were the target we were aiming to hit.

'We wanted to create a mobile game that was very fast paced and adrenaline driven. We wanted it to have African influence as we both felt this region has been rarely touching in the games industry and it would set a interesting background for the game. It was a mobile attack and survival game that had very strong multiplayer elements. You would have to defend your little base from another player both battling for resource to feed your team or they would starve and die the player with the most people remaining or who survives the longest would win.'

10/04/2015

Today I decided to refine the main staircase in the museum, I was really unhappy with the solid block look that I previously had in the museum I wanted a more open feel and that fit with the rest of the aesthetics of the museum. Also now that most of the large assets are in I want to add all the smaller features that make the museum feel more natural and used as a actual space. I particularly like how the brickwork turned out, it gives the staircase a real weight.

11/04/2015 

Whilst walking around the museum I thought the walk ways and halls looked a bit life less and static so I was playing with the idea of adding animated banners around the halls to give the museum breathe. I didn't want the animations to be overwhelming or subtract from the level itself just to add to the atmosphere as a whole.

I bought the Cloth animation pack from the Unreal Marketplace as to save time and not stray from my main project. At this moment in time, I haven't a clue on how to create a rig or animate cloth in a way that would look convincing.

12/04/2015

SUBSTANCE PAINTER by Allegorithmic 

I am really looking forward to learning the new substance painter and texturing assets in a new next gen style manor. I didn't think it would be wise to try and learn another new program during this project as I would have to divide more of my time away from the main project, This is something I really want to learn and get very excited about but as of now I will be continuing with my museum work and picking this back up after submission.

13/04/2015

I went into the media lab today to have a quick check over of my work with Sharon, we discussed how my work was going and if everything was coming together, We also spoke about my online presence and how my website was going. I said everything seems to be going well with my website although I needed to add more content and actually get some good work that I'm proud of up online as soon as. I still have a healthy Twitter page and Facebook page but I want to get as much traffic through my website as quickly as possible.
I did have one grumble at myself  though as I still haven't set up business cards for myself.

14/04/2015

At the moment I've been feeling rather stressed with the project as I've been having computer issues and I lost some of my asset files for the museum and the exhibits. Also I've been having issues with people submitting work either saying they would create content and not commit to it or people just sending inappropriate items.
Instead of getting more and more stressed about the work I've decided to take a break and create some random assets just for fun and to calm down. I also plan to add these to my portfolio to fill out space and to create more content.

15/04/2015

Again, taking a bit of a break, I took some inspiration from one game I'm really enjoying at the moment, H1Z1, a sandbox zombie survival MMO. I like the art style of the game and the way they like to incorporate their players.

They like to design a few different assets then present them to the players and they get to vote for which style they like best. It reaches out and knocks down the barrier between the big corporation (Sony) and the players.

Bearing this in mind, I took it upon myself to try and create an asset for their, not because they have asked for it but purely because I'm a fan. The developers have been incorporating new and useful assets for the game because they want to make the survival side of it as realistic as possible. I decided that because they don't have the option of a chicken coop yet (they are adding chickens in game most likely as a food source) so I thought it could be beneficial to have a coop available at your base to keep hold of the chickens and to ensure a regular source of food. 

The image above is my design photoshopped into the game environment. I hope that by doing this, it might be bought and I at least might get noticed.  

18/04/2015

I've been considering using assets from the museum project and refining them for the UE4 marketplace as a source of income but also to promote myself. I have been researching the process of creating high quality assets and how you end up getting them onto the marketplace. I've also been looking into creating assets for other games that I enjoy just as a skill building exercise.

https://unofficialue4marketplace.com/

http://www.pcgamesn.com/unreal-engine-marketplace-open-business

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace

19/04/2015

20/04/2015

'We want to build on our ideas and start a media partnership business with people from university. We plan to do this by making a media company called studio 47, this will be our parent business which we run as a partnership with equal say in the projects that we do. We then want to make sub branches of our company that specialize in different areas such as video game music video and documentary/journalist. 
We want these to be separately run by 1 partner as a manager who has ultimate say in how projects under this umbrella are run. We want to do it this way for a number of reasons 1 artistic freedom. The people in the parent co-operative might not want or have the ability to work on some projects. Because of the wide range of artistic pursuits that we are following. This allows people to go and do their own thing without feeling like they are trapped by the parent company 

Business management experience
Allowing the partners to control there division of the business gives people experience in starting their own business, we are all aware that this project will take years and a lot of effort and eventually we will want to go our own way and start our own businesses, this gives us valuable insight in how a business in our field would be run.

Knowledge
No man is an island. We cant do everything our selves, organisations like this allow artists to work collaboratively over different fields and when a skill is needed that isn’t in the team leaders ability, he has people from different disciplines to fall back on. For the first few years of operating we want to run a 1 project at a time system with rotating leadership for each project. This gives everyone a chance to lead the group and develop there vision gives us all greater understanding of other partners ability and skills and understanding of their chosen discipline.

Finance
We want to split the profits of the money evenly between partners at studio 47 regardless of role, this is to give everyone a chance to work on a fair level. Later when we start to specialize in brands with our sub branches, part of that profit will be paid in to the studio 47 pot, the rest will be for running the division and for the division leader to earn extra . I feel this will create incentive for people to work harder, you can think of it like a bonus structure of pay. 

Young Money
make sure you stress that we're not in it for money
but we know money is important
and we plan to evolve our business thinking as we become more aware of industry practices and how the finances will work

#Sub brand success or failure 
One reason that we don’t want to do all of our projects under one banner is because of brand awareness , we realise that some of the most successful companies in the world specialise in what they do , with sub brands this gives us the ability to have brand awareness in terms of specialty without it being linked to studio 47. If we then decided to sell or close a branch we can do so without really impacting on how the business operates and also shield the mother partnership from potentially being damaged because of scandal or failure . we want to do this because we know that art can and often is shocking and controversial and can cause backlash For example, Zak Field as a video game developer, doesn’t deserve to be affected by a documentary about neo Nazis or gay hate figures or gay rights activists, the same way that Alex Evans doesn’t deserve to be effected by video game controversy like violence against women #gamergate or gratuitous violence in video games. If people want to become involved in these areas they can if they don’t then this compartmentalizing allows people to keep a detached distance from something they are not comfortable without punishing them.



21/04/2015

22/04/2015

Now that I've added banners to the museum I thought it would be best to create designs that would relate to the museum, either announcing a grand opening or soon upcoming exhibitions. After coming up with some designs myself I soon released that my photoshop skills are somewhat lacking so I started going through my online connections and looked for a graphics designer with an art style that would fit the museum.
I found Karl Fry, I was really impressed by his art style and could picture his designs in my museum so I contacted him asking if he would be interested in working together. I am now currently writing a design brief for the project that will incorporate the sizes and styles of work I will need.
http://workdoodlesandrandomcreationskarlfry.blogspot.co.uk/

23/04/2015

So after having a chat with the graphics artist I wrote a very small brief outlining what I'd be looking for from the designs along with deadlines and influences that I'd like to incorporate whilst still fitting withing the theme of the museum.

24/04/2015

I've been working on different style of display cases for the larger exhibits that would work well in glass containers, I've always liked the science fiction looking style of the glass containers so I took images from Pacific Rim and sketched out some ideas and got to work on modeling them and importing them in for size references.

I finally settled on this style of display case as I feel it works well with the rest of the aesthetics of the museum. I may later on change the materials of the case and not have it as stone and rather a different texture but at the moment I feel it works nicely. 

I made a couple of variations so that it gave more options of size for the people that would like to submit and display in a case rather then in an open top cabinet.

So I have now started to receive the banner designs, I've been in contact with Karl whilst he was working on the banners. We both thought it would be useful to talk about the themes of the museum along with the general aesthetics

This is one of the very first banner designs I was sent I liked the over all style but I was not entirely happy with the wolf, so I send Kyle a message asking if instead of an animal we could create the silhouette of something more like a golum or the colossus from SOTC. 

He also came up with a design for the armory which I wasn't completely happy with at first, to me personally it just wasn't "game" enough so asked if it would be possible to recreate the design with more weapons rather then what could be mistaken as the heroes banner.  

I did send some reference images so that would both understood the look we were going for, we had many discussions over skype and watching each other work was rather useful as we could comment on what worked well and what didn't, giving constructive criticism throughout. 

4/05/2015

Dare to be Digital sign up closed today. This made me angry that we had very little information form our course about any of the steps leading up to the deadline. I had done much research into this myself and with the new style and format Dare had changed to I still wanted to give it a go, to me it seemed like since they had removed some of the development features which our course was well known for and where they had previous excelled, they just decided not to even attempt it this year. I realize that jumping into the new format with little knowledge of how it will work is a bad idea but they could of at least informed the students more about the decisions rather then just not saying anything and prolonging answers till it was too late.
Now that I've had a think about it and looked deeper into the new format myself I feel I could managed my own team together and come back at a later year and give it a go away from the university. I plan to keep in good connections with many of the people on my course and make new stronger connections elsewhere then combined the two to create a more fluid team that has experience working in the games industry.

I also received another banner from Kyle I was really pleased with this and the way it cam out. I wanted a strong silhouette for the beast so that guests or players would create their own beast in their minds when looking at it.

5/05/2015

Keeping with the strong silhouette theme we started to work on  the heroes and villains banners, I wanted iconic symbols of good and evil with these so at a glance there was no mistaking what these were. So I sent over reference images from Halo and Overlord two games I very much enjoyed playing as the roles of the characters in game are so far apart and have very different and distinct game play styles.

6/05/2015

These are some of the final banner designs that made it into the museum, I was very pleased with the outcome and felt they brought a lot more life into the museum. In combination with the animated banners they make the museum seem less static and less like a solid scene and more like an environment that could be explored.

7/05/2015

Today I thought I would take a break from the main museum and go through some of my early sketches to refine some of my favorites and create them as 3D assets in order to use them later.

9/05/2015
Brilliant news, the banners were completed today on time and in high quality, I am very pleased with the work and the process I went through with Karl, I found it very easy to communicate my ideas across to him as we developed a style that was best suited for the museum as well as working together over Skype to generate more of a team effort.

Now that I have placed the banners into the museum, I feel it has created more depth for the space itself, implying that there are more wings to the museum rather then just one static room, it also works well that the banners are animated to slightly move as if there were wind blowing through the halls.

Walking through the hall now with the display cases as they are I am not completely happy with the arrangement. I need to go back and look at the curation process and rearrange them in a more pleasing and interesting manner.

10/05/2015

After importing more cabinets into the museum I felt the walk ways were becoming very cluttered and unpleasant to navigate so I decided to rearrange the cases to create a more narrative based walk through that the player could navigate.

I looked back through my research of the Disney ride layouts and designed a more intuitive pathway to follow. I didn't want to create anything that felt to claustrophobic and boxed in, I wanted to create more of a narrative when looking at the exhibits around the museum I did not want to just have a collection of things, I wanted each object to compliment the next and tell a story.

11/05/2015

12/05/2015

The presentation today went really well, it was good to be able to show my work in front of a different group of people and have some feedback from students that work I different areas of work.
There was a lot of discussion on the arrangement of the display cases and if they were to be filled or not for the final hand in. I informed my lecturers and the class that due to lack of submissions and people committing to their work I would be unable to fill the museum to a standard I would be happy with, so instead I have offered to display students work at the end of year show if they would like to take part.

18/05/2015
Doom Sneak Peek came out today and I got super excited, this made me want to go back and look over id software and research how these games came to be. I've been a massive fan of their work for so long and they are a big part of why I got into games would love to work towards their style and see if I could make some contacts.

19/05/2015 *moving house*

20/05/2015 *moving house*

21/05/2015

Business cards

22/05/2015

23/05/2015

So I and all my wisdom made a very unwise choice and tried to re-texture some of the walls which is fine but then I made the mistake of re-importing the asset which set every wall back to its default position which needless to say wasn't good.
Though it is a lesson learned and I will not be making this mistake again.

24/05/2015

Great news found more work abroad! Whilst speaking to Katie from the despicable me project she asked if I'd be interested in working together on another project after I finish the course. I accepted and found out that we'll be working on more projects in the US. I am very excited to start work in this field and hope to gain a name for myself and continue creating more contacts as I go.




27/5/15

Today I created my showreel it was a very long winded and exhausting process as my computer kept crashing and not working correctly. I followed online tutorials as well as the help sheet George send out to the course.