Meh

I'm going to make a new blog as part of my portfolio website I'm going to be working on shortly.

This one irritates me..

What's a hiatus?

I've not posted here for over a month now, since I only got the internet back a couple of days ago after moving flat, it didn't cross my mind really until now.

A fair bit has happened since I lost the internet - I've started working on the unreal level design, got a job (starts tomorrow, yay money!), and realised how incredibly little I know about maya at the moment. The latter is the biggest problem right now, since I need to use maya to create static meshes for the unreal level!

As a "quick" remedy, I'm going to watch the 13 hours of video in the 3dbuzz advanced modeling dvd's for polygon modeling up to and including the modeling of a socom pistol. Having done this, I'll need to learn how to do texturing in maya for exporting to unreal, which should be a much shorter task. I'll also have a sweet socom pistol model which I can put in a modeling portfolio, which will be nice!

That's got to be done by the end of thursday ideally so I'm setting a tentative deadline for that being done by then. Following that I need to start making the level in unreal so going to be getting some tracing paper out and making sure of exactly what I want to do with the level. Since I had an idea today of having a long glass corridor I clearly need to think more about it since that would be just about the lamest thing you could have in an unreal level.

I type too fast.

3rd year projects o_O

Just pretty much skim-read the information on the third year projects, and I think the project I'm working on with Pawky Designs will be suitable for my live client project, but as we're aiming to get that released in its first stages by september, I don't know if it will qualify!

There is undoubtedly a LOT of work to do on this site, probably enough to get a first class masters qualification in fact, and the potential for ongoing add-ins and updates is very significant, and I could likely spend the entire year just adding more things to the site to make it even better.

I have a lot to think about in regards to what I would like to do after I finish because I'm still teeter-tottering between web design and 3d animation, and a combination of the two doesn't appeal greatly to me as I've seen it done so poorly before.. but then perhaps that's why I could be good at it.. because once I've finished the final year I will undoubtedly be advanced in both areas (since I will be putting a load of time into improving my 3d work) rather than just the web design as I am currently.

*shrugs*

Tiny things

Just had a few thoughts while working on some of the things for the project outside uni, first of all I forgot to mention in my previous post that it is not a solo project, it is a joint venture with a company called Pawky Designs based in the Hive.

It's a student company, and is owned by the guy that made My Magical City (see www.mymagicalcity.co.uk) which won an award (I forget the name..) with a prize of £10,000 while it was in the concept stage which is what funded it to get where it is now.

I will shortly be starting a business in the hive myself if possible as well: I've got an application form ready to fill out but I'm not sure how I'm going to go about it since at current I would need to be in the hive on 1-2 weekdays a week for 12 weeks starting in june, which is clearly not ideal for job seeking and making money over summer! I may have to stoop to the level of call centre work again as the flexible hours and generally high level of pay could make it worth my while to stay up here in Notts.

The new project is slightly similar to my magical city in that its going to be using (true) isometric pixel art, which I've done a little of in the past:

Note that the above is not truly isometric, as it uses an angle of 26.565 degrees instead of 30 as it should be. This is the standard you will see on the web however made by people such as eBoy and Gunstar Red as it gives very clean lines.

I've never been one for copying however, and while it may be slightly easier to work in false-isometric, I'm all for us making our own style!

I've started to make a few pixel people (and tv's apparently) which you can see below:




Fubar body:

Much improved:

Working outside of uni

Been starting work on a secret project outside uni (NDA's stop me from saying anything really!) and it is going to be absolutely awesome once its done, problem is, the coding required is nothing less than immense and is a far greater challenge than the one I had on that damned game I was making!

So at the moment, hoping for a september release which may or may not be likely, but will be easier to determine closer to the time! Other than that I'm seriously working on improving my php, flash, maya and mysql skills ready for doing this the best way I can.

Other than that, I've also got to start on the UT level shortly (this week!) as I have big plans for it!

This is awesome

Need I say more? Watch this!

Link

Recovery

After a very long 36 hour stint before the hand-in, I've now had time to recover (which involved lots of sleep and a few pints!) I'm going to keep on working on the game, though with a few changes to make it more suitable as a full platform game engine, and also create my own flash-based level editor for the engine. It will in a few months be a very nice engine that I can use to create platform games (and a few other types of games) relatively easily!

I will not be posting the game as it stands now on this blog, nor will I for a while, as I intend to procure sponsorship for the game once it is completed, and, as it is an original idea, I don't want it to be stolen by random internet users!

I will shortly be beginning work for Pawky designs in the Hive on their website mymagicalcity.co.uk [plug!] and other work they get soon as their in-house programmer, which should be very good not only as a paying job (on a per contract basis) but also for improving my knowledge of various programming languages and also improving my portfolio and design skills.

So lots going on at the moment, will post more soon!