- I'm playing catch up for this class.
- I hate the cloth modifier.
- Next few months will definitely be rigging or animation I'm calling it.
- I got some personal projects in mind that all require 3D modeling.
This last week has been tough for me work wise. I have been catching up on a lot of 3D modeling, although I have been able to accomplish a lot now that I have 3Ds Max at home, it has still been a lot to do in a week. I have relearned all tools and techniques from last year as well as my complete hatred of the cloth modifier, which gave me plenty of trouble over the last week. For the next few months I think we are going to be moving in one of two directions. It will ether be rigging or animation, and there is only one thing I hate more than the cloth modifier and that is rigging so for my sake I hope it is animation. I just thought of a cool idea for animation using the daylight and cloth modifiers to make a time lapse animation which could be cool, but who knows. Most of these tools have given me ideas for personal projects like 3D modeling a zweihander with the taper and symmetry modifiers then using that 3D model in digital paintings, which is something I will have to do on my free time. Or using the daylight modifier to simulate shadows of a cliff or mountain that I could then paint. Maybe I'll do a blog post on some of the personal 3D stuff that I could do in the future.
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This has been a great year of AGAD and i've learned a lot since september. I have learned about how game companies and studios organize their teams to make games, and we actually put that into practice. That project in particular was definitely the best learning experience overall for showing how game industrys work. The main thing that I think should be removed from the course or at least condensed would have to be the sound editing part specifically because of its similarity to the video editing stuff we did a week later. I also think that marketing for your project should be either removed or shortened too be less taxing at the end of the year. I think adding more assignments that will help to teach and improve communication will be very helpful to getting used to working in the big groups that work on most triple-A games. This class has absolutely improved my ability to work on assignments and keep up to date which will vastly help on my school assignments in the future and into collage. Can't wait for next year, Miles Here are all the images in the Info-graphic So this is it the last few weeks before exams and crunch time has officially begun. Everyone is rushing to finish their projects before we have to do the final test which we still don't know the nature of, minus the fact that it won't be a traditional final exam but more of a mini project that will be assigned before the actual test starts (I know, its weird). My project is coming along well though, I’ve finally set up the player properly (which is now in first person). I’m now working on the terrain and collectibles for the game. I should be able to finish the game within the week.
Here is one of the resources I've been using to make my game. https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/roll-ball-tutorial As of earlier today i have finally finished the TANKS Unity tutorial. This is honestly by far the longest Unity tutorial that we have done. Luckily this is the last Unity tutorial for the year, huzzah! That doesnt mean Im going to be free from working in unity just yet, the last project for the year is an independent project, of course if you read these posts you should already know that because of last week’s post. As for where I’m at with it I’ve started to redesign the infographic for the project, to make it more neat and polished. The plan is to get the infographic done this week, the earlier the better, once I have finished the infographic the real fun begins. The first thing to do when starting this project would be to make the terrain which for this project will be the most important part of the game. The level has to be designed around the ball’s ability to pick up momentum, so lots of hills and valleys avoiding i'm going to avoid making bumpy terrain. All in all i'm not there yet so that will be all for this post.
https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/tanks-tutorial This is the first blog post of the fourth quarter which means THE END IS NIGH for the school year. This quarter is always the worst for time which is why I’m planning out my work for the quarter. There are two more tutorials that need to be finished before the final independent project which I have already made a infographic for and i've planned out what my goal for the project is. There are a few more blog posts and portfolio checks so this won't be the last blog post for the year. After the school year ends Im planning to still make blog posts, and i'll get to talk about my experience on my first internship that's happening this summer it'll be fun so stay tuned over the summer for updates on that.
Above is a work in progress info-graphic for my independent project.
Below is roughly what I want the game to play like, and what the project was inspired from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5T7L1CCTzE Because of recent problems with 3Ds max which has caused relentless problems for everyone working on it our teacher just said screw it and skipped 3D all together and now we are on the unity unit. For those who don't know Unity is a game engine that is used to create games.
The software was made to support 3 types of coding softwares C sharp, C++, and Boo (which I’ve heard that the only the creators of unity use this coding language). For this class we are using C sharp to code our games. This isn't the first time we have used Unity in the game design course last year was when we learned about the basics of unity before jumping into making 2D games. This year we are doing 3D games and the first assignment was to create a 3D version of the UFO game from last year. This was very easy because the work was nearly identical except for the fact that now i'm working in 3D. I’ve realized that I have retained a majority of the information on coding from last year and furthermore I have a deeper understanding of the mechanics of unity now that i'm working with it again. Not going to lie im sort of excited to work in unity again.
https://unity3d.com/ https://unity3d.com/public-relations Recently I started working on a personal project that I want to build into a full-fledged team project. It’s a web comic which I've code named Bygone. It’s something I’ve wanted to try for a while, but I’ve had some trouble getting started on. One of my problems has been procrastination. Recently, a friend showed some interest and he has helped me be more productive. Since then, I’ve tried to apply some skills that I’ve learned in Game Design.
A project like this definitely needs organization. I realized this after one of my first brainstorming sessions with a bunch of friends. Everyone was talking over each other and it was kind of a mess. I've decided to cut my team size down to a small group of six people with specific assigments. Each team member will be working on different parts of the comic. For instance, I will be working on the sketches and outline storyboards while someone else will be working on color and shading. Delagating responsibilities and working together is something we do all the time in Game Design. Unfortunatly, another thing I’m very familiar with from Game Design is how hard it is for a group of friends to stay on task. My solution to this problem is to set some ground rules. Only one person at a time will talk and everyone will fully get to speak their mind before anyone else comments. Each month, we’ll set goals that we need to complete for the comic. I hope this will help my team keep on task. If we are able to stay focused on our goals, soon enough we’ll have an actual comic. I may post more updates for this project in the future depending on how it goes and hopefully I’ll have a really great comic to share. Below are some sketches of characters and places that might be in the comic. Last week we started doing video editing in my game design class. My main impression of video editing is that it is very similar to sound editing. The only significant thing that is different about the format of the UI and the editing software is the ability to view the video portion of what you're making and the ability to add pictures or clips to the video. I still am having a bit of trouble editing for both sound and video because it is a very tedious process. I’m still not very comfortable with the software and need more practice. I realized that I have a hard time thinking about the end product so it’s hard to put the pieces together. Video editing feels like another really important skill that I can utilize in the game industry for making trailer clips so I’d like to improve.
I watched this video on tips and tricks for Adobe premier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLQKvhBLEhM It was very helpful and I learned some keybinds for adobe. I also checked out this video for some information on more specific editing techiques. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-CyAA1NuB8. I learned how to color grade video clips. These videos are really helpful in learning how to navigate the settings. I asked a friend for some tips on video editing (no not anyone in my class) and he told me for videos on youtube the way to keep people watching is with a hook, similarly to how you get someone to try out a game. The hook is designed get the viewer to click on the video where the first two minutes will have what the viewer was looking for in the video. Later on the video can change focus but the idea is people will still watch it because they have been hooked by the original premise. I’m going to try this strategy and try to focus on coming up with a creative hook to keep people watching.
Last week we worked on sound editing in my game design class. This was my first time working with editing software so my classmates were getting stuff done much faster while I was struggling. I found the new UI weird and foreign. It took me some time to get used to the visuals.
I had a bit of trouble getting it to work but eventually, with the help of my friend, I figured out roughly how sound editing works. I was able to actually get work done and I discovered that sound editing is kind of fun. It is possible to make some really cool stuff with editing. I still have a lot to learn with how editing works but I'm kind of excited for the video editing stuff that we're going to do next week. Personally, I find editing to be kind of challenging to do but there are really cool things that I've seen done with proper editing and I want to see what I can manage to make on my own. This skill will be really useful for making videos and games so it’s a good skill for me to learn and refine.
Last Friday couple of friends and I went down to EK Powe Elementary School to help out with a game night. It lasted for about two hours and was quite fun. We played a bunch of board games and had an incredible game of Scrabble that lasted the majority of the time. My job there was explain the rules of the more complicated games and to keep the kids entertained and engaged. Everyone was nice and it was seemed like all the kids really enjoyed it. This was an excellent example of how games can be great learning tools. Scrabble is good for helping kids use their vocabulary and spell, as well as, using math to count the points. There was a game that taught kids how to find patterns. Some kids played Clue which teaches you how to use logic and the process of elimination. Volunteer work is good for the community and can teach you life lessons. Doing something nice for someone else is always a good way to contribute to society. |
Miles RomanHi, I am a student at Durham School of the Arts, and this blog will be documenting my experiences with my Game Design class. Categories
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