The Pop-Culture Worshipper

Final Words On Negotiated Brief

2011-06-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

With all the final turnarounds, prop design and Storyboards complete I feel I've come to the end of my project. Originally I had planned to also include a environment piece but due to time constraits I never got round to working on it, retrospectively I feel I had bitten off a little more than I could chew.

Overall I've complete 3 character turnarounds, a prop design and 3 storyboards and I feel that this amount can constitute as a good body of work along. If you include the research I completed and the total of 48 blog posts in this project I don't feel too disappointed that I didn't get round to completing a environment piece. I feel that over the year the level of skill in my drawings has increased and I've become more confident in photoshop and I'm getting closer to finding my own style in photoshop with each new piece I complete.

The hardest parts of this project were definietly settling on a design for angel eyes but it was a fun challenge and this type of brief I would love to try as a personal project. With all my work complete all thats left is to complete an evaluation and hand in the project.

I am also considering completing one more turnaround for Blondie between completion of the evaluation and the deadline, but if I can't get it done in time I plan to get a new turnaround completed for the end of year show as I feel that the newer turnarounds are much more friendly to viewers.

Overall this project was a fun challenge and it definetly made me realise that working as a conceptual artist is something I would love to focus on for the third year. Overall I'm proud of the work I've completed and feel that the sacrifice of no environmental art to make the deadline is a wiser choice considering the amount of work I've completed and because of this I feel I've got slightly better at managing my time but this is an aspect that still needs improving but, this has been a great project to end my second year on.

Returning to Blondie

2011-06-02T18:02:00.000-07:00

When I was designing Tuco and Angel Eyes after the final crit I also went back and did a few more sketches of Blondie.

These new sketches show a much more definite style as after the final crit I felt I knew what I was doing with my pencil. The over design was kep the same but what changed was blondie's face, now longer was it hidden behind a shaggy beared these now stubble, his face and to an extent his whole body type is more gaunt/slender and more akin to Blondie's original body shape from the film.

Although I've already completed the turnaround for blondie if I have time after the evaluation is written I plan to go back and redo blondie's turnaround in the new style I developed since the tuco turnaround.

I'm glad I went back and touched up the deisgn for blondie as I feel much better about the design overall and how He'd fit in with the rest of the cast.

Prop Design

2011-06-02T18:01:00.001-07:00

When it came to designing the props for this brief, I originally settled on the idea of designing the breathing device that would be widely used in the World I was creating but due to time constraints I fell back upon a prop I came up when designing the Tuco character.

Since the basic design of a gun was drawn in a piece of concept art I went forward and decided to complete a finalised design for that specific one as well as two more for variety. The three are based off real gun models, atleast originally; one is based off a pistol, one a revolver and another a modern day hand gun. I also designed two types of ammunition that would work with the weapons.

I imagine that these weapons would use heat capsules instead of modernday ammunition, this game me the excuse to be a little more creative with the gun designs and their ammunition.

Overall I'm that I chose to develop these props as I feel the final result is a highquality piece of design and would be easy for a prop maker the materialise, either physically or digitally. The minial use of colour is some places was to differentiated the guns from modernday guns but to also make them look a little more interesting. In terms of design I'm glad with the way this sheet turned out.

Angel Eyes Turnaround

2011-06-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

With the design aspect of angel eyes complete I continued through and created the turnaround for angels eyes.

Keeping in design of the original Angel eyes colour aesthetic of darker/darkest colours of the group. As mentioned I balanced this out with the use of the brown cowboy boots.

Again I used the technique of completing turn arounds in this new 3/4 manner and the painted style that I feel works well. Ideally if I had more time I would have made it a little more detailed but I still think this works for the final design. Looking over this turn around I feel that I should have brought more attention to the fact that Angel eyes has implants instead of organic eyes and it's clear to see in these final designs that the prosthetic arm I was planning to add was dropped.

Again, as with the Tuco design I feel this isn't iconically sci-fi but wouldn't look out of place in one ude to such minor design tweaks seen in the colour and the design of the tie.

If you've seen over the designs these a use of blue "tron" lines, I wanted something that would bring the characters together in some way and this was a simple but effective way to do as it's a subtle design choice. With this design complete that's me finished all the turn arounds, but with this new version I'm considering going back and redoing the design for blondie if theres enouch time between writing up the evaluation and the deadline.

Overall I feel this design works for Angel Eyes and is the step in the right direction for what I envisioned when coming up with this brief.

Angel Eyes Development (Part 2)

2011-06-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

With the base idea of Angel Eyes down I developed a little further ironing out the the creases in the design. The last features that were added were twin shoulder holsters and the design of the collar and tie.

Finally I thought the addition of some sun glasses worked well to hide the cybernetic implants of Angel Eyes' eyes. The design could also work well as it adds to the creepiness of the character as he could reveal them as part of his shtick when he goes in for the kill of his victims.

Overall I really like the way the designs have turned out both in terms of design choices and quality of the illustrations, I also feel that these designs present a really good aesthetic of the character. With these complete I feel that I can move onto the turnaround of angel eyes.

Angel Eyes Development

2011-06-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

With Tuco and Blondie Complete all thats left is to go through the process of designing Angel Eyes. This character was probably one of the harder ones to develop as I went through several different designs for just the look of Angel Eye's face.

It wasn't until after the final crit did I begin to create some looks that I was really happy with. I eventually opted for a middle aged look to the character with a shaved head as I thought this help add a bit of imtimidation to the character.

I still wanted to opt fot the hit man/ hired gun look, so the basic look of this suit didn't change much through the development but more details were added such as the concept of adding cowboy books. These were added as a general attempt to add a bit of personality to the suit and make the character seem a little more unsual than just a hired gun. I feel that this addition was a good creative design choice as it also breaks up the heavy use of blacks as the most logical step to take after giving a character a suit is to add formal shoes but, the idea of Angel eyes walking down a corridor and his spurs sending a shiver down victim's spine is something I feel adds to the character.

He still needs a little more work though.

Tuco Turnaround

2011-06-02T16:59:00.000-07:00

With the designs completed and finished I though it was about time to complete a turnaround. The first thing you'll notice is the difference in presentation.

I went back and looked at the art of mass effect, it was in that book that I noticed that the professionals don't neccessarily adher to the strick front side back rules and instead go for a full front and back pose of the character at a 3/4 pose. Firstly this makes things a little easily as it means I'm not having to draw a third pose but I still translate pretty much the whole idea.

Next is the method of completing the turnarounds. Instead of using heavy black lines I use the paintbrush tool more and this still conveys the shape of the character and the detail but without the heavy black lines, again this is a much quicker process and I feel that the final outcome and aesthetic is much better than the previous versions.

In terms of the design of Tuco I'm quite glad with the way this has turned out, whilst not explicitly saying it's sci-fi it wouldn't look out of place in a sci-fi film. The darker choice of skin works in favour of the overall design. As mentioned in my research the characters of the good, the bad and the ugly the characters are define in the colour spectrum by shades of brown, to update this I decided to change this to grey, this does look a little dull but it fits with the aesthetic and current trends of "semi real" sci-fi films. Overall I feel that this turn around is a step in the right direction both for this project but as a development step as a conceptual artist.

Developing Tuco (part 2)

2011-06-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

Once I had the general look of Tuco's face down I decided to carry on with desiging his costume. I drew what just came naturally and the design that came out was kind of vest thing.

I started to develop the full body design of the character, drawing influence from general design of the space suits of aliens from starwars. I tried to develop a range of emotions or poses to try get the feeling of the character down but it wasn't until I drew a piece of tuco siting at the table holding his gun that I really felt intune with the character.

Overall I'm happy with these designs as they've come and I feel this new style of creating the characters since the final crit is really working well for me. With this style in mind I feel that it's really going well, it's also at this point I drew a character holding a prop, be it a gun, but this opens up an option to develop that further as a prop.

Developing Tuco

2011-05-27T14:35:00.001-07:00

For Tuco I wanted him to be an alien to try add a little bit of colour to the cast and really for my own personal sake of wanting to design an alien. I went through several design stages until I reach a design that I liked, from there I drew up a final version.

I wanted to try keep the face semi human or atleast similar so that I could convey the range of human emotions in him. The choice of colours were classic alien colours, green skin etc.

When designing the alien version of Tuco I really wanted to try keep the kind of sleezy, gringo look that Tuco had in the original film and I feel that with my design I got pretty close with my final version, all thats left to do is define his costume.

I feel that I'm progressing at a good pace with my work and that I'm at a point where I can complete the rest of the work in time for the deadline.

Final Crit

2011-05-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Today marks seven days until the deadline for the project, it was also the day of a final crit where I presented my work.

Overall the feed back was good and I should continue with what I was doing but some attention was brought to the proportions of my character turnaround such as the arms being too thick but overall nothing was said too much about the design itself. With that in mind I plan to go back and fix these problems. Another issue that was arose was that some of the poses I had drawn the character in didn't really portray the ideals of the character, with that in mind I plan to do some more sketches to try do some more charismatic poses for the blondie character. My use of black lines was also brought up and it's something that I plan to change in the next itteration of the character turnaround.

My way of presenting my turnaround was well received and this gives me hope for the final pieces for when they're on display. What was fairly surprising was how well received my more recent design sketches were, in all honesty I personally feel I hadn't hit my stride until I was doing these sketches and that my previous efforts were a bit stiff, looking as though I was struggling with trying to adapt the iconic character. My plan from now is to work wholly traditionally and if colour is required just scan into photoshop leaving out "inking" as a whole.

From here I plan to continue using my process with a slight modification of doing the concept art pieces with traditional tools. Overall I feel that this was a good crit and has filled me with confidence to complete this project on time.

"Blondie" Turnaround

2011-05-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

With most of the design and conceptualising stages complete I proceeded to create a turn around for the blondie character. To the right you can see the turn around, Currently I still have to do a version with the iconic poncho.

Overall I'm happy with the result and I feel that I've got a fairly good sci-fi look with a fairly competant turnaround. This process took little over an after noon, perhaps around 6 hours. My process for completing this is by using mirroring tools in photoshop and re-using the front for the back, this is done to help cut time and keep a sense of continuity.

With this done and the sketches for the other characters nearing completion I feel I should have everything completed by wednesday evening/thursday morning, giving me enough time to catch up on any stary blog posts and complete an evaluation.

One Last Revision

2011-05-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

After looking at my photoshop concept piece I felt there was more that I could do before reaching the final turnaround. For that purpose I put together this sketche that I feel solidifies the aspects of the design in a more concrete manner that can be used for a final turnaround.

For this design I took two main points of influence 1 being the star fighters from star wars and the sneaking suit from the metal gear solid series. I added some designs to the overall suit and really just polished off the look.

Ultimately I feel i've come to the definitive design for the blondie character, there are things missing such as the gas mask as I've decided to make a more prominant feature in the world I'm trying to create so it's ended up being the prop that I will develop.

In terms of designing I feel I've got a good system for the process of designing; starting with inital sketches, going on to a more developed concept piece, then returning to do one last revision before a final turn around. This is my general process that I've been using so far and I feel that it's working well both time wise and as a design process.

"Blondie" photoshop concept art

2011-05-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

With the concept sketches complete I felt it was about time to create some more definitive concept sketches

To complete this piece I thought about the type of image I wanted to create, something that would translate the character's personality easily to a veiwer so I developed this pose (as seen to work with). Ironically it's very similar to many that clint eastwood has been in in his Dirty Harry series of movies.

To create the piece I first took a photo for reference of myself in that pose, the imported it into photoshop where for the purpose of speend roughly traced where the main shapes are. From there I elablourated ontop of the design adding what I had built up on.

I still feel that this concept could use some more work but at it's current stage it's a good point that collects all my design choices. Most notabley for the first time I used a texture brush, I found this a great and simple way of adding detail, I plan to look more into creating my own texture brushes so that I won't have to work with what photoshop has preloaded. Overall I'm happy with the direction that the blondie design is going in.

More "Blondie" Sketches

2011-05-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here I'm just sharing more sketches I've completed of the "Blondie" character, with more sketches that get completed the more I begin to feel I'm getting to know the character and I'm approaching the concept stage sooner.

Here you can see other versions of the gas mask concept shining through as well as the use of the iconic poncho. I decided to stick with this rugged beard look personally because when I look at modern actors in films othen they're either clean shaven or have 5 o'clock shadow and this is really to try break away from that but to also draw parallels to Alec Guinness from the star wars trilogy.

Overall I'm pleased with the way the character is developing, I would definetly say I'm drawing influence from starwars as a design point but I do feel I'm building up (in my mind) a very space age bounty hunter/outdoors man type image for the blondie character. That said some sketches do turn out better than others and as I develop further I feel I'm hitting my stride when it comes to designing the character.

Developing "Blondie"

2011-05-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks I've been trying to develop the characters of the Good the Bad and The ugly for a sci-fi genre film.

I first focused on the character of blondie, creating sketches withs initially traditional on paper such as this one. It's in these drawings that I'm still trying to figure out the details of the character. In this image we can see that blondie still has the iconic pncho, and it's this that I feel is a staple of the character that should stay through the design along with the trademark squint.

I also included a gas mask as the environment for the characters to exist in would be toxic to humans, this is really an attempt to try an replace another iconic part of the original character which is the hat. From ehere I'm going to do more sketches until I feel it's about time to do a concept piece in photoshop which will be more definitive of the final design. It's at these stages where the small changes can be critical.

Finished Storyboards

2011-05-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

Since completing the art side of the storyboards, I then put them together in photoshop to make them a little more presentable and also add the notations of the client to help other parties understand what is supposed to happen in the shot.

I feel that just by looking at the series of images you can figure out the basic story of what's supposed to happen in the scene. Which I feel is what makes a good storyboard.

When I presented the completed storyboards to the client, he seemed incredibly pleased with the result and felt that he could use them, this to me means that I completed the project sucessfully, it also gave me the taste of working for a third party including such experiences as working with a tight deadline, overall this shows that I can not only deliever but also not crack under pressure.

Overall I created three storyboards for the client, with two reaching over three A3 pages and one lasting only two. I feel this is a substantial amount of work to complete in a short amount of time and that is also something to feel proud of, I did end up using some time cutting technique such as simplifying the characters in the scene but overall I've produced some good pieces of work, that as I stated the client was extremely pleased with which means this aspect of my brief has resulted in success.

With The storyboards complete I can now fully focus on the conceptual side of the negotiated brief, I plan to make sure this project gets completed well before the deadline.

Tools of the storyboard

2011-05-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

When it comes to doing the storyboard I ultimately ended up using two methods of completion. One being traditionally with inks and markers, the other with computer tools such as photoshop.

When using the markers I was a little rusty but overall a little quicker, unfortunately the inks in the markers began to run out. This was the primary reason as to why I used computer tools, oddly though I felt more professional whilst using the traditional tools and the overall aesthetic look did give a more pro' look.

That said when it comes to using the digital tools, all I did was do the same work as I did with the markers but in photoshop with a digital paintbrush, the result was something more clean cut and clinical but just as effective. I feel that when it comes to using either markers or photoshop I prefer using the digital tools as it is a little more manageable than the markers and I don't have to worry about the ink running out. Currently I've completed the art for all the storyboards, all thats left is to put it together in a presentable format and send it to the client.

How I create the Storyboards

2011-05-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

When it comes to creating these story boards for my client I set up my studio as pictured. I blue tac the storyboard drawn by the client in front of me so I can refer to it quickly and easily.

I then set up my drawing board in front of it and tape my piece of paper to the board so it doesn't move. I used my triangle to make the lines and panels for the and work using traditional methods, this is because of the sudden deadline given by the client, this allows me to work quickly and to a level of quality I feel the client will be pleased with.

When I work with my storyboards I look at the client's originals I think of how I can make that image more interesting for the viewer to see, this gives the concept a fresh look that the client can choose to use if he'd like. Overall from start to completion the process takes around 4-5 hours, currently I have one and a half of the storyboards complete.

Working with Angel Eyes

2011-05-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of a concept in the progress for the Angel Eyes character. As mentioned previously I imagine him dressed smartly in something like a suit/shirt type thing. He's seen action but he makes sure he walks away from a job clean as possible. A smooth and slick talker.

Taking aspects from the original character portrayed by lee van cleef, I wanted this version to still have that recognisable look in his eyes. To help give a base in science fiction I decided that Angel Eyes would have his name derived from the fact he has cybernetic eye implants instead of eyes that give off a light piercing glow.

I'm still developing the idea and working on putting more digital pieces to gether as up until now I've been predominately working with traditional tools. I will give more updates as they come.

Working on the concepts

2011-05-19T13:45:00.001-07:00

Over the last few weeks I've been trying to develop the three characters, firstly thinking about the archetypes, so far I've been mainly focuings on Angel Eyes and Blondie.

For the setting I settled on a exotic planet with large jungle/rainforest like locales. For this I imgained spores that were hazardous to people ergo, outside interaction would need gas masks. Ideally I want the three characters to portray a different aspect of being a gun man. Blondie will be a classic bounty hunter whom will go where ever needed for the job such as outside in the exotic jungle/rainforest and would need cover such as the iconic poncho, a constant air sanitizler (gas mask) and special equipment to deal with nature. Blondie's style I imagine as being similar to Star Wars' aesthetic

Angel Eyes is a person I imagine if he as more modernised as a hit man of sorts. Always making sure his hands are clean from the kill but enjoys the job and the life that comes with it, giving him a slight edge to make audiences think "oooh he's a bad 'un". His style I imagine being slick and calm/cool with an aesthetic similar to bladerunner. More like a suit style.

Trying to combine these aesthetic I have in mind are going to be an interesting challenge but already I'm getting flashes of how it may be possible.

Working on storyboards

2011-05-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

Today I've been working with the third party I said I would complete a storyboard. Firstly he presented his rough storyboards for what happens in his film and explained the sequence, together we discussed possible ideas for camera angles and the way he's planning to shot.

This gave me a good idea of how he wanted his story to turn out which would allow me to create a storyboard the client would be happy with.

So far I've completed a storyboard for 1 act of the client's 4 act film. This helps as it gives me a time frame of atleast 4 hours to complete a storyboard per act, which means that I should be finished by monday which will allow the client to use these as a guide when shooting. Overall I'm confident about this aspect of the project and feel that once it's out the way I can focus on the concept art fully.

Influence Map

2011-05-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Whilst looking over artist's work to try spark some inspiration for my own work on this project I came across this interesting activity on deviant art.com. This influecne is basically just an image map of generally the style of an artist that inspires you and that you feel make up your style.

Over the years I've tried so many different styles but none have really worked out in the long term. Looking at this and the drawings I'm currently completing for my project I feel I'm slowly finding my style. Looking at this influence had I would definitly say I'm inspired by more cartoon-esque artists.

Hopefully this will help the direction for not only this project but future ones too.

if you wanna make your own influence map download it here!

Super hero Redesigns, Project: Rooftop

2011-05-18T02:50:00.000-07:00

Whilst looking at my usual websites for frivolous news to entertain me for a whole 10 minutes I came across a cool article about a blog where artist post their own re-designs of established Super Heroes. Project: Rooftop collects both artists work and news about costume changes in comics, in reality it's just a fashion website for super heroes, considering the natural of my own project I thought it'd be cool to check out.

There are some really cool unique designs on the website such as this one to the right by Kris Anka for Galactus, he explains his design choices here;

"My basic idea is that he is sort of a void of power. Make him a more visual representation of the “abstract” concept. The hole in his chest is where he eats planets. Afterwards his body physically becomes whatever main element of that planet was. So if he eats a star, his body becomes fire."

Check out more of Kris Anka's design in this post on Project: Rooftop here.

Then theres these cool concepts of the Spider-Man villain Venom possessing other super heroes by James Harren. He definitely captures the contorted feeling of the symbiote in the designs here.

The website seems like a great place for people to post up their ideas and it's already getting me inspired to do some super heroes re-designs of my own

To participate in Project: Rooftop all you need to do is see the guidelines (here) and send your design in. The great thing about this website seems to be that theres prejudice against level of a skill and that pretty much anyone can join in.

Once I finish my project this is something I can see myself doing for fun at least once a week as it's a great exercise to get the creative mind thinking.

Outlining design elements

2011-05-17T05:03:00.001-07:00

When it comes to designing a character there are always key things to keep in mind that can help guide a design in it's early stages. I recently went back and looked at the main characters from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly to see if there were some design/character traits that I can take note of to use as influence/inspiration for my own designs.

The first thing I noticed is that the characters are coloured coded via shades of brown, with "Blondie" being the lightest toned to "Angel Eyes" being the darkest mixed in with a few blacks (notably his hat). All the characters have similar roles but with varying details Blondie is a bounty hunter, Tuco is a bandit and Angels eyes is a mercenary, all use guns and can be hired to kill people but it's their stance one morals that separate them.

In terms of redesigning these characters for a sci-fi scenario I'm thinking to change the base qualities, adding elements such as alien designs or species. Already I've decided that I want the narrative to take place in an exotic jungle setting as I feel this is a huge contrast to the original dusty western setting of the original and can really help me develop my designs so that they suit an environment as such.

It's the smaller details such as these that should be kept in mind when comes to designing as it's stuff like this that can really give a good start to a design as setting up some primary boundaries can take away the initial intimidation of a task.

Putting it all together

2011-05-14T13:47:00.001-07:00

With this being the 50th post, I though it'd be good to look over all the work I've completed for this project.

Firstly I'm still waiting for a reply from Rockstar Leeds but I'm optimistic for one.

Over the course of this project I've learned many things ranging from copyright, building a business, making contacts and learning about the ins and outs of trying to get hired. I've researched businesses, methods of getting hired as an artist and researching about networking and location clusters. The most important thing though is combined with my end of term project I've finally settled on what I want to strive to be in the industry.

With all the information that I've collected over the last few months I'm going to put together in a critical report that I should be able to use to show my understanding of the creative industry I want to enter and can then use as a point of reference to return to should I ever need them

Personal Connections

2011-05-14T13:45:00.001-07:00

When it comes to this industry one of the most valuble things next to a good portfolio is connections. This is something I've always been told through the last through years working at Travelling Man, this was recently re-enforced by my chance meeting the Art director of Rockstar Leeds.

It's these connections that I can use either for advice or to try get work completed or even have a good word put in and it's these networking oppertunities are much more valuable than networking events such as comic cons as it means you're already a little more on the inside.

It's this position I should work on, ideally I should create some top notch work and see if these connections would be able to help me find work. Luckily in my position I've been working with the Thought Bubble convention and have had the oppertunity to meet guest artists on personal basis and get contact details, for the future its these oppertunities that should not be squandered.

Imagine FX

2011-05-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

Imagine FX is a monthly magazine that is aimed specifically at illustrators. The Magazine comes packed full of usefull tutorials and even comes with a free cd-rom with loads of great video workshops and brushes etc for computer programs, undoubtably though is the sense of community.

Artist can write in with what they're stuggling with and the group of artists that imagine fx has on hand can answer those problems. The magazine also shows other artists work so getting published would be another way to get some great exposure. The Magazine also lists events realted to illustration all across the world, this is a great way to find out about some great events.

Beyond the magazine Imagine FX also has a website where memebers can share critques with each other and post on forums. Much like deviantart this a great way to meet other artists and improve your own skills, the website also offers art challenges on a weekly and monthly basis.

Being a part of this community is a good way to improve skills and meet other artists at the same time, and if you get noticed and published it's a good way to get noticed.

Capybara Games

2011-05-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Capybara is a game company that has developed several games, some of which have found great success on the App Store such as "Critter Crunch" and most recently "Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro".

The Canadian based company already has 5 iPhone games behind it's back and is well known for it's unique graphical style thats more akin to 16-bit video game consoles. Ontop of being recognised the Company has also one several awards for Critter Crunch.

The home hub for Capybara is a little bare but for each new game they create a new website exclusively for that. This allows them to keep their games seperate and gives a very professional impression to the company as this is what more established publishers also do. This also gives their games space to breath and live as thier own products, rather than being all jamed on one place.

One the home website though there is a news feed and contact details. The News feed contains all the latest Capybara news including screenshots and videos of upcoming games such as "Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro" and the contact is simply an address and an email.

Another thing that should be noted is that the website is made from Wordpress, this shows exactly how successful a company can become from a shoestring budget and some clever work. Capybara is a success story of how a mobile developer can thrive and it's always good to remember that theres many options when it come to working in the game industry.

Glasow Comic Con

2011-05-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

Coming up in June is the Glasgow Comic Con. Previously I've looked at a few comic conventions and these are great oppertunities to meet both publishers and professional artists. There will also be events such as workshops, Panels and an art exhibition.

Amounget the guests will be the likes of star writer; Mark Millar, Superstar DC artist Frank Quiently and more. Having a chance to meet these professionals is something that shouldn't be wasted when you're looking to break into this industry, even five minutes is enough to potentially gain some valuable information.

There will also be independent publishers there who may just be there to peddle their own wears but sometimes they may take on someone to do work for them or maybe even publish something of your own, you never know you might get lucky. The site doesn't state if it's happening but there could be portfolio viewings which are always beneficial. Again as stated in the last post it's always best keep an eye out for events where you can personally meet and get info from professionals.

Hi-Ex Comic Convention

2011-05-14T12:33:00.001-07:00

Keeping an eye out for networking opertunities is always a wise thing to do in this. Whilst searching around I came across Hi-Ex! A comic convention taking place in inverness, scotland.

Amoungst guests is super start artist Charlie Adlard known for drawing the acclaimed comic "The Walking Dead". Whats most important is that the convention has many guests from the comic industry along with a portfolio veiwing, this makes for a great oppertunity to meet established artists and revcieve some great advice.

Unfortunately this year the convention has already passed but it maybe good to keep track of this convention aswell as others.

Deviant Art

2011-05-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Deviant Art is one of the largest artist communities on the internet. Being that I want to enter an industry where showing off your owrk is a key part Deviant art is a great place to start. To sign up is free and it has features such as setting up your gallery by uploading your work, journals and profiles.

One of the greater things about Deviant Art is that as soon as you upload something it gets copyrighted to your user name. This is a bit awkward as it may get confusing as it's copyrighted to a user name rather than a real one but nonetheless it's a method of getting a quick copyright.

Another great benefit of Deviant art is that it's very much like facebook where in you can chat to other artists, see their work, leave comments. Its very much a great place for artists of all skill levels to communicate easily with each other, and the ability to recieve critism from other artists is a great way to improve your own skills.

Deviant art is also a great way to show your art work as an kind of online portfolio, but it does come without the flash of a personalised website. Deviant Art is a great way to get more exposure and in this industry you need all the exposure you can get.

Getting an App' onto the Market

2011-05-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

Last time I looked at Apps and the power that they're having in gaining people's attention. I went over the pros of the service but how does one actually go about getting an App on the itunes store?

First of all you need to enroll as a developer on Apple by paying $99. With this you get all the tools you need to start creating your app, be it a tool or a game. These tools are Xcode, iOS simulator, Instruments and Interface builder. Along with these tools you also get resources such as tutorials and a Devloper library.

Once you've built your app you need to test it for bugs, testing it in realtime on a device that can run it, here you can find any problems with go back and adjust it accordingly. Then you have to test it with wi-fi running to see what effects it may have on the App. The good thing about this stage is that you can easily get in contact with technical support should any problems that you can't figure out arise.

Finally once it's all set and done, cleared of all bugs and polish added it's time to distribute it. All you have to do is pick the price and put it up for sale on the app store where you get 70% of the revenues, after that point you don't have to do anything else, no fees and you recieve the proceedes monthly.

This seems like a great way to get some work out there for a low cost if you're working idependently. It could also be a great way to get noticed out there with the right promotion.

Current Trends: The 99p game

2011-05-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

Game Changers, there something that happens in every business. The most recent game changer in terms of the Video Game industry is that of App's (Short for applications), these Apps can be downloaded onto smart phones such as iPhones, Androids etc. but, whats truly interesting about these Apps is that along with tools there are now game.

Games on mobile phones have always existed, one such popular game was Snake II for the Nokia phones which help sky rocket sales. Today phones have transformed into something more akin to computers, with the ability to go online, download new Apps (essentially programs) these phones are becomming more powerful with each new iteration.

Along with these Apps, Games have become very popular, why? Simple reasons really. First off theres the low price, £0.99 seems to be the average asking price for a game in an App store and these games can be throughly entertaining/challenging and if they buyer doesn't like? They haven't really spent that much on it so it won't be a bother. Next theres the fact that people carry their phones around with them alomst everywhere and they don't have to pay extra for a portable gaming console.

Ofcourse just in writing this sounds silly but with App titles such as "Angry Birds" being downloaded millions of times, reaching the #1 list in hundreds of countries you begin to realise how successful these apps can be. Consider that a £0.99 game is downloaded a million times, now two million and so on, that becomes a lot of money for a developer and it begins to make you think, perhaps this is more than a current trend but more a slow change in how the market will work?

Ofcourse with these cheap prices theres been alash back on game companies who produce for PC and Consoles and it's not hard to understand why. If you can get a game for £0.99 instead of £30-40 you would, some developers such as Satoru Iwata of Nintendo have commented saying that the games won't be the same level of quality but there are many who would argue against it, especially when you look at the financial figures.

Already we have free games on facebook where players can decide if they want to pay for more content, then theres the downloadable content that you can get for console and PC games. Maybe it's these smaller transactions that the future of the game industry lies in?

Looking at Weta

2011-05-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Weta Digital is a New Zealand Based Digital FX company, amoungts their portfolio they have completed work for a wide range of projects ranging from movies such as Avatar, The lord of the rings, District 9 and Enchanted to high end commecials for products such as Nike and CK One. Currently the team is working on the movies The Hobbit and Tin Tin.

Established in 1993 by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk the company has grown into the point where there are two sectors, Weta Digital, which deals with CGI effect and Weta Workshop which deals with physical effects.

The company describes itself as "world-leaders in all areas of visual effects production, including animation, motion capture, crowd generation, modelling, compositing, and film scanning and recording." Weta has also won many awards for it's work including 5 academy awards.

When it comes to applying for a job at Weta you first have to fill in an enquiry form to see if they have something that will suit you. The company rates itself highly and asked for top quality work from it's employees. Obviously with it being located in new zealand If I were to apply and get accepted I would have to move.

The company presents itself quite modestly on the web, it doesn't bring particular attention to it's awards nor does it have a particularly flashy website. This presents two impressions that either they let their work speak for themselves or that they're still unsure of how to present them selves to the web. Considering their history and level of quality in their work it's most likely the latter.

Contacting the company seems incredible easy, with an address and mulitple emails for the right department you want to contanct shows that they're set on making sure their work is organised.

The company definetly has a high profile due to it's high quality and awards but not much about the company's personality is spoken here beyond the usual "we deliver high quality work" stuff that can be seen a hundred time in any hundred other places. This makes Weta quite hard to pin down as a company.

Common Requirements

2011-05-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

When looking for a job in the a certain discipline theres bound to be a few similarities in the requirements right? Obviously bigger and more well known studios will ask from someone with a higher skill, thats already a given. I'll be looking at several different jobs to see the trends in what employers ask of their concept artists.

This job as a concept artist at Belgium based Soft Kinetic Studios requires that the applicant have:

High school (secondaire) diploma or GED required
AA/BA/BS (Universite) preferred, or at least demonstrate through portfolio to exceed industry standards of art
At least 3 years experience in game or concept development.
Excellent traditional drawing skills and the ability to create concept designs for 3d models and textures in various stylization levels.
Excellent eye for lighting, shape, balance, composition, good knowledge of human anatomy and perspective.
Excellent knowledge of Photoshop and/or any similar package.
English/French is a must (verbally and written)
Passion for creating and playing video games.
Any experience with a 3D package a plus.
Proficient use of Photoshop, Ilustrator
Good communication, able to working in a team environment.
Creative, pro-active, continuously bringing new ideas and creativity to the team.

This job at UK based Media Molecule requires that artists have:

Show reel demonstrating how great you really are!
Proven ability to produce top notch work as an experienced artist (or equivalent role), on at least two shipped preferably console games
A strong technical background using 3dsMax, Photoshop skills, After Effects
A strong understanding of advanced modelling and texturing techniques and their applications to games.
Proficient in traditional art
Knowledge and understanding of the history/trends of art and design
Strong team player
Strong communicator

Then there's this job for US based game developer Amiqus:

Undergraduate degree, or distinguished college coursework in relevant fields, or proven portfolio of industry experience Minimum five years experience in Game Industry
Minimum two game titles completed, one title as a Lead Artist
Expertise in Adobe Photoshop
Expertise in 3D Software
Combination 2D/3D skills
Strong next gen character tech knowledge
Strong anatomy and sculpting skills
Understanding of all technical aspects and requirements of game creation
Strong abilities in character lighting, texturing, colour concept comps, and photorealistic rendering methods
Good people management skills and experience managing a large team of artists.
Has a positive attitude, collaborates and communicates effectively with others

All of these jobs ask that applicants submit a CV and a Portfolio on top of these standard requirements, so lets start looking at the similarities. All 3 ask for an efficient understanding of photoshop, illustrator and atleast one 3D software, in some form or another they ask for high level of understand and practical use of art such as lighting, shading and anatomy. Another and slightly more obvious request is to be a good team player. On top of all that they all ask for atleast 2 projects worth of experience, now this is obviously where looking for a job gets tricky. It every job is asking you have experience how do you get it? the most likely answer is probably internships.

It's not odd that there are so many similar aspects thats required of people between these jobs as each one is pretty much the same, perhaps with a few minor variations based on what the employers wants from you. The good thing to know though is that if you feel you're lacking skill in one of these areas for one job by going out and gaining it you can boost your chances for applying and getting more.

Edge.com

2011-05-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Often looking for jobs can be a difficult task, often many people will suggest that you sign up with an agency to help find a job but through my personal experience I've been told that to make sure you get the job you want it's best to do the searching yourself as you can pick and choose the jobs you want.

If you're looking for a job in the videogame industry a great place to find plenty of job offers is in the back of higher tier magazines such as Games TM or Edge. I took a look in Edge magazine and their website to see what job offers they have. With over 9 pages with atleast 10+ on each page thats a pretty good start, with a variety of jobs from each department in the industry the ads for jobs in Edge might be a good place to start.

The ads feature a small blurb about the company, outline the basic role of the job, location, responsibilities and qualifications needed. Along with this information there it also states what you need to submit.

This extensive list will prove useful to anyone ofcourse after applying it's all down to how strong your CV and portfolio is.

Top Locations for Jobs

2011-05-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

When it comes to locations in some indutries small clusters may develop, already I know that there are small clusters of video game, animation and movie studios across the world.

Whilst searching the internet I came across the website: http://www.gamedevmap.com/. The website lists the majority of games companies that exist. This allows users to easily identify clusters of where to get work and where some of the best potential employers may be.

The site is easy to navigate as all users have to do is click on the little red dot and a list is brought up of all the companies in that city/county. Along with the list of names of the companies are the website and exact location in the country.

Hot spots include Vancouver, Canada with 50 games studios, Tokyo, Japan is another with 71 game studios, London is another option with 113 Game studios. When looking at the site map it's clear that there are clusters in America/Canada, Europe and East Asia. This site is offers a comprehensive list and makes job hunting a little bit easier, ultimately making it a valuble tool when it comes down to looking for employment.

The Association of Illustrators

2011-05-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

The Association of Illustrators was established in 1973 to stand up for illustrator's rights and to help promote a pr.ofessional standard. The AOI is a non profit organisation and promote illustration in general.

To join the AOI there are several different options; Illustrator, Student and several +1 packages. A Student Package costs £72 a year with the first fee of £24 and comes with these benefits;

• Free subscription to Varoom magazine.
• Substantial discounts on AOI support events such as Business Masterclasses, Open Portfolios, Looking at Children’s Books and How to Survive as an Illustrator. You also get discounts on our publications; Images, The Illustrator’s Guide to Law and Business Practice, and directories for the Publishing, Advertising and Editorial sectors.
• Twice a month you will receive news and information via UPmail newsletter.
• Receive discounts on art materials from selected suppliers.
• Exclusive access to AOI Members only section of the AOI website which contains examples and guidelines on pricing, and the Pro-Action site. (See the Campaigning page on homepage) with the latest on contractual issues facing illustrators and recommendations on how to deal with them.
• At reduced prices you can post your work on the AOI portfolios website for access by the commissioning world.
• Discounted entry to the Images competition, exhibition and annual, New Talent category.

Where as the Illustrator membership costs £150 a year with an initial fee of £24, this membership comes with the following benefits;

• As a member you can phone our dedicated support line and receive advice on legal contracts, pricing commissions, professional ethics, business practice and licencing. • Raise your visibility with discounted web promotion on AOI portfolios.
• Free subscription to Varoom magazine.
• Take advantage of a discounted one hour Portfolio Consultancy. Discuss how best to prepare your portfolio to suit your desired market, or if you’re thinking of changing direction from your current style.
• Twice a month you will receive news, information and reviews via UPmail newsletter.
• You get large discounts on AOI support events and publications.
• Receive discounts on art materials from selected suppliers.
• Exclusive access to AOI Members only section of the AOI website which contains examples and guidelines on pricing, and the Pro-Action site. (See the Campaigning page on homepage) with the latest on contractual issues facing illustrators and recommendations on how to deal with them.
• Discounted entry to the Images competition, exhibition and annual distributed to 4000 commissioners.
• A free consultation with a registered Chartered Accountant to advise you on keeping accounts, tax and National Insurance, VAT, invoicing, as well as general advice on how to conduct your freelance practice and set up a small business.

Both of these packages come with basic benefits for the website such as Portfolio Advice, access to Client Directories, Business and Legal Advice, Events and an online portfolio.

Another aspect of AOI is that they offer an internship scheme where in for 2 days over 3 months doing membership services, exhibitions/events organisation and publishing.

Overall The AOI seems like a good offer but in terms of it's necessity it's a little more questionable as advice such as this can be gotten through networking and carefull considering how to look after your work. The online portfolio is nice but you can set up a webite by yourself should you require it, there are also some nice benefits to the service but nothing that I can't see a person doing themselves with a little hard work. In short I guess AOI is a method of streamlining this whole process to make it easier for budding illustrators break into the industry.

Looking at Imaginary Friends Studios

2011-05-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

The imaginary friends studios is an illustration company comprised of several key memebers; Stanley “Artgerm” Lau, Kendrick “Kunkka” Lim and Kai “Ukitakumuki” Lim. The company prides itself on not just supplying concept art, illustration and client work but doing it so with high quality and care.

With two studios one in Singapore and one in Jakarta, the imaginary Friends studio has built up to a large 30+ full time digitial Artists. They boast that the high quality work that keeps large name clients such as Square Enix, Sony, DC comics and EA coming back to them.

The studio offers a variety of services such as; Concept Art, Character Design, Entertainment Illustration, Advertising Illustration, Comic Production, Graphic Design and I.P. Development. In contrast to Udon, Imaginary Friends seems to broaden it's client base and gives a much more professional visual aesthetic, because of this they pride themselves in the constance flow of clients. Looking through the website the photos of the studios gives a very professional appearance which is probably another reason as to why they receieve many clients as it's not just the quality of work but also ways in which a business presents itself.

Along with client work, Imaginary Friends Studios has also created a personal collection of work under the title of "The Pepper Project". It's this deviantion from standard client work that shows that this company likes to keep their employees together as a little something more just workers, building up a community.

Contacting the company is fairly easy, either by post or email. The real question is how do you join the Imaginary Friends? This isn't really mentioned on the website but it may work on a similar basis like applying for a job, perhaps email them and send a portfolio. The group also have deviant art accounts which means that they have a strong sense of community and easier to contact on a more personal level. In the mean time I plan to add all members to my Deviant art watch list and email them for some more info about them.

A Reply from Rockstar

2011-05-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

I've literally only just checked my email 5 minutes ago and it seems I've got a reply from Rockstar Leeds pretty much 20 minutes after sending the email requesting for any advice or a tour of the studio.

The email is promising saying that the Art Director would first like to meet before taking any further steps (understandable considering the location of the first encounter) and is in a very friendly manner. I've asked should I bring anything along to our meeting such as a portfolio and what not and currently I'm waiting for another reply.

This is a very exciting time as this could lead to promises of internships but in the very least this is an exercise in professional networking outside of organised events such as expos and conventions.

Looking at Jobs in Lucas Film

2011-05-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

Whilst on the Lucas Film website I looked to see what jobs they have that I thought would appeal to me, first of all they have a fairly easy system of just searching for keywords. Since my desired profession is to be a conceptual artist I simply put in "ART" when the opening for a "Concept Designer (Feature)".

The job is in California and the role is to "Work closely with the Art Director to design the characters and environments to be used in a CG animated feature film."

As mentioned in the previous post Lucasflm has several subsidiaries, this job will be taking place in Lucasfilm Animation. The tasks that I would be required to complete would be:

Create designs for characters, vehicles, environments, and props
Create orthographics and additional materials as needed to fully convey design to digital departments.
Completes work within the bid timeframe, while maintaining constant communication with production team.

This is slightly coincidental as it's very similar to my negotiated project that I'm in the process of completing, which means that before looking for this job I was aware of the roles of a concept designer.

Along with this the job mentions it comes with Benefits, I decided to research this by looking for the definition of this on the website:

Benefits

Working at Lucasfilm has a lot to offer: A fun work environment. A competitive salary. Great career opportunities. Plus, our U.S. employees enjoy a comprehensive benefits package* that includes:

Medical, dental, disability and life insurance
Vision plan
401k
Flex spending
Commuter benefit
Adoption assistance

*Specific benefit details will be attached to our offer letter. Our Singapore studio offers different benefits that will be discussed during the interview process.

Lucasfilm also provides benefits that will change your concept of what "going to work" means.

Beautiful, Natural Work Locations
The Letterman Digital Arts Center (LDAC), located in the historic Presidio of San Francisco, is just steps away from Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge. The Skywalker Ranch and Big Rock Ranch campuses are located on thousands of acres of pristine, undeveloped land in Marin County, north of San Francisco. All three campuses provide a positive and creative environment for Lucasfilm employees.

On-Campus Meals
Fresh and healthy food is served daily in the Dining Commons at all of our US locations. The menus range from sushi to sandwiches — and everything in between. Some of the food is actually grown at Skywalker Ranch and certified organic. We subsidize the cost of meals for our staff, making them convenient, healthy and affordable.

Fitness Center
We believe strongly in staying healthy, and want to make it easy for our employees to do so. There are subsidized fitness centers at each Lucasfilm campus, some with on-site trainers and aerobics programs.

On-Site Childcare
At LDAC, on-site childcare services are available for parents with children between the ages of 2 months and 5 years old. Working parents can see their children on their lunch hour and pick them up as soon as the work day is through. Hours of operation are 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Company Store
Both LDAC and Skywalker Ranch feature Lucasfilm company stores full of products that you can buy — everything from Star Wars figures to hip-looking baseball caps and T-shirts, all at a substantial discount for employees. So, if you need that lightsaber for any reason...

Free Movies
Free first-run movies are screened weekly for all Lucasfilm employees and a guest of their choice. Catch them at one of four Marin County theatres on Saturday mornings at 9:00 a.m.

George's Art Gallery
If you like vintage film posters, you'll love working here. Vintage movie posters are displayed throughout all the buildings at LDAC, Big Rock and Skywalker Ranch. This collection of international and original Hollywood one-sheets is one of a kind.

Sports
We're into team-building here. You might be surprised at just how many employees take part in after-work athletic activities. Soccer, softball and bowling are just some of the games that we play together.

Company Get-Togethers
No one's ever said that Lucasfilm employees don't enjoy getting together for a good time. Every year, we throw a Fourth of July family picnic at Skywalker Ranch complete with softball, sack races and a giant barbeque. In October, the annual Halloween party and costume contest is extremely competitive and the perfect opportunity to wow your colleagues with your creativity — and win big prizes. In December, we thank the staff and their partners for a great year by throwing an unforgettable holiday party unlike anything you've ever experienced.

Thanksgiving Turkey
At Thanksgiving time, it is a Lucasfilm tradition to provide every employee with an organic, free-range turkey (or tofurkey for vegetarians) to enjoy with their family and friends.

As I mentioned previously Lucasfilm seems like a very friendly company that want to look after their employees and this inclusion of benefit schemes only re-enforces this mindset, making this job seem more and more appealing.

Finally Looking at the requirements:

Bachelor’s degree in painting, industrial design, or fine art preferred.
Two or more years of related production experience.
Strong traditional art skills, including knowledge of color, lighting, perspective, and composition.
Strong character/environments concept drawing skills a must.
Expertise in 2D paint software and techniques required.
Experience or knowledge of cinematic techniques, language and shot composition desired.
Demo reel and/or portfolio required.

They seem to definetly want a strong professional for this role, which unfortunately currently rules me out as even at the end of this year I will not have a degree in industrial design, painting or fine art, I also have no experience and my art skills definetly need improving. The inclusion of a portfolio is obvious but luckily I feel I met the criteria of knowledge under film making thanks to my course.

Looking at this job has definetly been a take two steps forward one step back as it's shown me some of the more attractive jobs there are out there but the requirements of degrees that I don't have currently is some what disparaging as I'm not sure how I'll get them. Obviously one of the most important parts of getting a job in the industry is to put together a stellar portfolio. This post has been insightfull at least in terms of me knowing about potential missing pieces that could be required of me in other jobs.

Applying for a Job at Lucas Film

2011-05-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

Lucasfilm is a company that's best known from bring the StarWars Franchise to the world. The great thing about Lucasfilm though is that it's divided up into several smaller subsidiaries such as; Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, Lucas Arts, Lucasfilm Animation, Lucas Online and Lucas Liscensing.

The company's main locales are; Presidio National Park in San Francisco, Marin County and Singapore. The recruitment website gives information on the locations to inform potential employees about these environments such as nieghbourhoods and things to do, this is great as it slightly eases the fear of having to move by informing what will be instore for the employee.

Lucas film also organises a variety of events over each day amoungst some of them are great oppertunities such as Cal Art Portfolio viewing day and perhaps most importantly a recent event that happened between May 7-12 was the ILM Recruiting eventin London, showing that this company takes it's job seriously, travelling the world to find it's next employees.

Overall the "About Us" section is very comprehensive in that it covers pretty much all bases from the company, it's history, Why it's great to work with them etc. All this information is clear and readily availible on the website. The company also offers extensive training such as: Enrichment classes in which you can imporve your skills in a desired area and Career Development which help employees with leadership roles, time management and communication training.

The website also offers and FAQ on how to apply for a job:

How do I apply for a position at Lucasfilm?
Please apply directly here as we no longer accept resumes in the mail. You can review all the open positions at Lucasfilm either by function, by company, by location or all of the above. While we often have similar positions available in different Lucasfilm companies, you only need to apply once even if applying for multiple jobs. Once you have selected a position, you'll receive specific information about how to apply, what we look for in a demo reel and/or portfolio, and how to send your materials to us (if applicable).

How will I be contacted regarding the status of my application?
Due to the large quantity of applications we receive, we're unfortunately unable to provide individual applicants with specific feedback. You'll receive an e-mail acknowledgement of the receipt of your submission. If we feel that you're a strong candidate for the position, we'll contact you directly. No phone calls, please!

How often should I reapply?
If you think you're truly a good fit for Lucasfilm, we recommend checking our jobs site and reapplying every six months or when there's a change in your contact information. If you're a game artist, it's always good to check in with us around the time of the Game Developers Conference (February/March) and if you're a visual fx artist, check in again around the time of Siggraph (August).

If I'm not authorized to work in the United States, can I still apply for a position?
Lucasfilm is proud of its incredibly diverse organization. We have talented people that come from all over the globe. The requirements for obtaining a work visa are complicated and not all jobs are eligible. For the most part, you'll need an advanced degree or several years of applicable work experience to be eligible.

How long will my resume be kept on file?
If we feel that your experience and skill set are a good fit but we don't have any current positions, your resume will remain active for one year. Otherwise, all resumes are archived for two years after the date of your application.

To increase my chances of working at Lucasfilm, what software and programming languages should I be proficient in?
Lucasfilm uses Maya, XSI, Shake, AfterFX, Houdini, Linux, Python, Renderman, C, C++, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) and MS Office. Depending on the position, you'll need to be comfortable using one or more of those programs. It's important to note that you should only apply for positions for which you actually possess the necessary skill set. Applying for jobs without the proper qualifications will deliver the wrong message and work against your goal of working with us.

Do Lucasfilm employees ever see or work with George Lucas?
George is an active participant in all of his businesses and is on one of the campuses every day; he works as hard as we expect you to. Depending on what company you work for, you may see him more or less than other employees.

This information seems to outline a good majority of possible questions that could be asked and it seems they want to really give people the best information for applying to their Company. On top of applying for a job a great way to get a foot in the door is to apply for an Internship, which again this section on the website is full of information again this is all given as an FAQ, an important thing that should be noted is that they're keen on making sure you're eligible to work in the U.S., Below is the FAQ:

Who is eligible to apply?
In order to apply you MUST be either an undergraduate junior or graduate student who will return to your academic studies upon completion of the internship. The internship is NOT open to recent graduates.

What if I am a recent graduate?
Since this internship is not open to recent graduates, we encourage you to apply for our full-time positions that are listed at jobs.lucasfilm.com.

What if I am an international student can I apply for an internship?
If you are eligible to work in the U.S., we will consider your application.

How long is the internship?
Internships last between 12-16 weeks depending on the availability of the intern and needs of the department.

Can I apply to more than 1 internship?
If you feel that you are eligible and interested in more than one position, please indicate this in your cover letter. You will need to apply to each internship separately at jobs.lucasfilm.com.

How can I check on the status of my application?
We will confirm with you that we have received your application materials. Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to check the individual status of each application. We will let all applicants know of our final decisions by the beginning of May.

Is the internship paid?
Yes, all internships are paid!

Are internships available only during the summer?
The majority of our internships are available during the summer. We have internships that are available at other times during the year, and they are posted on our website when they become available.

Is housing or relocation provided?
Unfortunately, we can not provide housing to interns at this time. However, we do provide a variety of resources to assist interns with locating housing. We provide a one-time only transportation stipend to interns who live more than 50 miles away from our campuses.

Are the internships full-time?
Yes, all summer internships are full-time, 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday.

Who should I list as my 3 references for the application?
We require that you provide us with the contact information for 3 people who can vouch for your academic, work-related and/or community-based experience and achievements. References should know you well enough to speak about the qualities that make you a great candidate.

Is there any opportunity to be hired on full-time after completing my internship?
We want our interns to complete their schooling first and foremost. If an intern's overall performance has been outstanding, then after they graduate, we revisit intern candidates depending on the needs of each division.

Do you provide tours to the public?
Unfortunately, we are not able to provide tours of our studio to the public.

From the website I get the feeling of a very friendly company that is always keen to atleast meet new people. Completing an internship first maybe a good method to get hired but they seem to hire you only if they're in need in you but theres a good chance you'd be more memorable than someone who has just applied for the job. All this information seems a little overwhelming at first but taking time to just read through it carefully is massively beneficial. What should be taken away from this post is that if I were to apply for a job at any division of Lucas film I would have to most likely move location and they seem like a friendly company, perhaps one to keep an eye on when I graduate.

Udon: An Illustration Company

2011-05-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Udon Entertainment is a company based in Canada that focuses on creating artwork for and with clients with a very Anime/Manga look. Established in 2000 Udon has work with a variety of companies to create images for various media such as Video Games, Magazines & Comics, DVDS, this work can include anything from cover illustrations to actual designs for the product itself, mixing both client and inhouse work.

Udon also publish a variety of Art books, such as "Art of" books for videogames or "Tribute art" books which collects images drawn by fans of a certain IP (EG Streetfighter, Megaman). The group seem to be massively community driven with their own network set up on Deviantart.com which can be seen Here. Currently there are 21 memebers of Udon on Deviant art but there could be more as the site doesn't specifically say how many members they have.

Amoungst the large list of clients that Udon have amassed are big names such as: Capcom Co. Ltd., Nintendo (Of America), Dark Horse Comics, Marvel Comics, UpperDeck, Wizards of The Coast, Hasbro, Inc., Anchor Bay films, ADV Films and Prima Publishing. When looking over this work they've created a variety of works from covers for video games to advertisments for them as well as toy designs.

Their website is full of useful information such as contact details via twitter, facebook or email. As they also do comic work Udon have also been known to attend comic conventions which would be a good opertunity to meet face to face or maybe ask for critique on my portfolio. In the mean time I plan to email them and ask them about the general process of their work and other questions such as is Canada a good place for illustrators etc. Overall it's doing this research into companies that is going to prove useful once I've graduated as the industry I want to enter is relatively small and it's this networking that is truly invaluble (such as my experience with rockstar Leeds). by building up a list of contacts I'll know who to talk to after graduation and getting my foot in a door seems to be a good start to network even further.

Chance Encounters

2011-05-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday I was at the local FAB Cafe, a nice little bar in Leeds with geeky/pop-culture stuff all over the walls, with a nice relaxed atmosphere.

Whilst in there enjoying a few beverages I saw one of my group chatting to a gentlemen covered in Rockstar Games logo (we're talking a t-shirt and hoodie) but it was enough to spark my interest so I asked "What's with all the Rockstar stuff?" It turned out this gentlemen was a sound engineer at Rockstar Leeds, so I took this moment to do some improv network, explaining my current situation, luckily he reccomened that I speak to the Art Director of RS Leeds and gave me the number of the company. First of all I've been looking for RockStar Leeds' phone number for quite sometime to get in touch and ask about possible intermships etc.

Not 5 minutes later does the Art Director of Rockstar Leeds enter FAB Cafe, where in the sound engineer introduced me. We got talking and eventually He asked me to do a quick sketch and write down how much I had to drink and my email address, I explained I got the number for the office and would call on Tuesday.

So I did that but unfortunately he was busy at the time so I got his email from the receptionist and have sent him a message asking about professional practises and a possible look around a professional work environment and I'm just waiting for a reply.

What the Art Director did say to me was that it was these chance encounters that can sometimes make a job or something happen, he did also suggest that I shouldn't rush too much and should enjoy my time being able to do what I want. Who knows perhaps a summer intermship may come from this, which would be pretty cool!

(I purposely left out names as I feel that it would be an invasion of privacy of the people talked about in this post)

I've found a Third Party

2011-05-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I still had not got a reply from any of the companies that I e-mailed so during my intrim crit I decided that I would ask if anyone in the class needed storyboards and would I be able to complete them.

Luckily one memebr took me up straight away as they were doing a film that required some storyboards to be made. So I've given him my e-mail to send me the info of his screen play so that I can make a storyboard. As I mentioned in time keeping I would complete this as quickly as possible, but if my third party does not get back to me by the 24th I will use my back up plan.

In other news the intrim crit seem to go fairly well and I'm not falling behind and none to many questions were asked so that must mean I'm doing something right.

More Networking Opertunities

2011-05-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

If I were to enter into the creative industry as a conceptual artist there are many ways to network without buying plane tickets, one such method is to join Conceptart.org.

The Website boasts forums, workshops, Art work galleries that you can upload your own artwork to and view others. Vut unline similar art hosting sites such as Deviantart, Conceptart.org also hosts events and has a section for Industy Jobs where comapnies can post that they're looking for artists for projects. Already this is afairly well known site and has thousands of users ranging from different levels of skill, the forums allow people to recieve critique from one and other but also this is a chance to get noticed.

Another aspect of this website that breaks away from the norm is the fact that they have a course in learning how to create concept art and fine hone your skills, this is none as "The Art Department" ("TAD") But there are costs which run up to a maximum of $45,000 for a 30 month course.

But they do offer scholarships based on a portfolio viewing.

There's a variety of courses to suit various needs and it may be an interesting expirence if I ever have money to burn or get on the scholarship.

Overall Concept art looks like a virtual space for the professionals, but it might be a good idea to go sign up and start participating in the forums as thats free to do on the site.

New Time Keeping

2011-05-03T03:13:00.000-07:00

With my R&D stage coming to an end it's time to outline my time for the practical side of this project more clearly. For this Project I have create 3 character designs, 1 prop (either a mount, gun etc)and 1 environmental scene, I chose these as I feel it covers a fair spectrum of pieces that are usually created for film.

During this time I still have to create a storyboard for a third party, something that doesn't really take up that much time but must still be completed with quality.

So with this work load in mind I have until 3rd of June to complete it all my new time management should look like this:

3rd May - 18th Preliminary concept art (outlining and perfecting my designs)
18th May - 3rd June create final versions

During this time I will complete the storyboard given to me by a third party so that it can be completed on time for their use, this is why it wasn't mentioned in my plan as it's a variable on the overall schedule, if I cannot get a third party I shall be completing a storyboard from a script this will commence around the 18th as well.

Coming to The End of R&D

2011-05-03T02:53:00.000-07:00

With all the research I've done around the process of creating conceptual art, researching conceptual art, looking at re-invented IPs and the original works itself I feel I've done a large enough body of work to start onto the next step of this project which is start outlining and creating my designs.

I will keep track of everything that I do and post it up, this includes every sketch I complete and new influences that I find. Whilst doing my practical work I shall still be looking at my books and various sources when it comes to designing, whilst the research has been finished it's at this stage that influences will begin.

Searching For More Third Parties

2011-05-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last time I posted a simple message up on the moodle forum, since then I have been emailing several companies requesting if they had any work in the storyboard department.

So Far I've contacted Rockstar Leeds, Nintendo of Europe, Rare and Mistwalker. Currently I'm awaiting a reply for either of these companies, if I recieve one saying that they do have work that I can complete thats great! During the intrim crit I will also be asking fellow class mates if they require work with their projects.

Finally failing that I have several books that contain scripts that I shall create a storyboard from. If I do not get a reply from the game companies by the end of the week I shall start my back up plans.

Looking at More Concept Art

2011-05-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've been looking at two other books for coneptual art research; "The Art of Star Wars Episode II" and "The Art of Hellboy".

It's interesting to see the differences between the two books, Star Wars is clearly the art of a film, where as the Hellboy book is more the art of a comic book. Both are the same in the respects that they serve as ground work for a final product. The art of Star Wars uses a mixture of traditional and digital techniques where as Hellboy uses purely traditional tools.

This piece here of a setting shows a very minimal use of form but perfectly creates a scene so that a viewer can see exactly what the structures are, complying to Chiang's three second rule.

The rest of the Star Wars book shows the concepts of characters, vechiles and creatures that appear in the movie from various artists including Doug Chiang. It's interesting to see the development of concepts from starting stages until their final versions and with Doug Chiang's insider information about his process as a professional Concept artist it makes this even more astounding to look at.

For the art of Hellboy most of the work is created using black pen on white paper. Much like the Star Wars book it's interesting to see the development process such as this image to the right, it is the first drawing that the creator, Mike Mignola created for his character.

In other instances Mignola has also drawn out plans for scenes, covers and characters. See these below, including a thumbnail of a cover for a comic and the final version.

It's important to keep looking at concept art as to help imprint the methods and general imagedry in my mind. With this I feel I'm nearing the end of the R&D stages and will soon be starting to create the concept art for my project.

Well Well!

2011-05-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

So today as I go to scan some new images from my "Art of" Books for this blog to write about them and analyse when with a cough and a splutter my scanner decided to turn itself off indefinitely, no matter what it just doesn't seem to want to turn on.

In the mean time I will be just using photos of the pages until I can get to a scanner, so images will have this lovely white dot in the centre where the flash has gone off.

This is twice I've had hardware failure during a project, it's getting annoying but luckily this time round a scanner is easier to replace.

Looking at Re-invented IPs

2011-04-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

The medium that recieves the most re-inventions is clearly that of film but it's not exclusive.

Last year a re-make of Clash of the Titans was released, taking the basic plot of the 1981 version the remake adds and takes away details from the original such as taking away the "cheesy chessboard manipulation of characters" by the gods.

The overall design and feel of the film is much more updated to appeal to a younger generation, the production cast has cited as wanting to create a darker and more realistic tone, essentially updating an 1981 blockbuster into a 2010 blockbuster with the main differences being a re-imagination of the details and general aesthetic.

The Marvel Super Hero Squad original started of as a toyline based off Marvel's characters for ages 3+. The first immediate difference you can see is the cartoony style and general softening of characters and generally more child friendly aesthetic.

This re-imagining branched into a whole franchise including tv shows and video games that expanded the characters giving them much friendlier personalities and personifications with more of an emphasis on comedy aswell as adventure; for example Wolverine originally a tough as nails, quick to anger and violent character is presented in very much a watered down pastiche of himself.

This shows a radical change from an original IP and how it can be successful given the right circumstances.

The Legend of Zelda is a video game series in which the same basic story of a chosen hero in green is given the task of rescuing a princess from the hands of an evil wizard.

In total there are 14 Zelda games which tell this story in different ways such as changing details about the characters, in one game the hero is an orphaned forest child, in another he is the son of a farmer, but the result is always the same; good rises and evil is vanquished.

Along with details changing in each game so do the aesthetics, with each new technological advance the graphic style changes in the Zelda games, sometimes radically or sometimes subtlely.

The important thing to know is that each game is the same and different from the last making this series one of the most re-invented franchise in videos games, potentially in general entertainment.

When it comes to reinventions there have been numerous adapations of stories to suit other audiences, one such instance was the 2006 film The Departed. Based off the Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs", the Americanised version keeps the same theme and general plot simply replacing them with American characters and settings. It's not the only time that a film from another country has been "Americanised", there has been other such as "Let Me In", adapted from "Let The Right One In", "The Ring", adapted from "Ringu". The list goes on but the point being that a re-imagination of an existing IP can merely change the locality.

One last re-invention to look at is the ancient tale of Journey to the West, telling the tale of the Monkey King. It's been adapted many times to different languages and different mediums, from tv to Stage to Music to even video games, each time taking on similar and different qualities. Most recently the story has been adapted for a video game that gives on a steam punk/futuristic aesthetic.

It's important to keep in mind that re-invention of an IP is not an uncommon thing and theres no limit to how you can change an already existing concept, you can change the target audience, the aesthetic, the details, the locality but people will still be able to see influences and origins of the original. It's important to be aware of the changes you're making whilst remembering the original.

The Art of The Storyboard

2011-04-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

I recently picked up the book "The Art of The Storyboard" by John Hart after reading several chapters I've learned more about the process of drawing storyboards. The first paragraph already enlgithened me about one aspect of storyboarding.

"Steven Spielberg's Storyboard sketches for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are little more than than chicken scratches, but since his concepts for the action sequences were at least indicated, even primitively, he was able top visually convey his ideas to a professional storyboard artist, who, in turn, rendered them in, shall we say, a more realistic manner."

what should be brought away from this is the fact that a storyboard doesn't need to be particularly detailed, the key to a good storyboard indicating the sequence as clearly as possibly and in essence a storyboarder's job is "Conveying visualisations of a written scene."

Often a storyboard is used only when needed to keep and interpret continuity of a sceenplay in a scene, usually an action scene. When drawing a scene John Hart cites that it's important to keep certain factors in mind such as;

What is the Story about?
Who are the characters?
What do they do and say, if dialogue is indicated?
Which characters are in the foreground, middle ground and background?
With whom are they in conflict?
Where does the conflict take place?
How many lights and light stands are needed to illuminate the locales?
What intensity is demanded?
What should ne the main light sources, for both indoor and outdoor shooting?
Where should the key light be positioned?
When are long, medium and close-up shots necessary?
What kind of reflectors, filters, gels, gobos and cookies are called for to create the right mood?
What colours dominate each scene?
What types of sets, costumes and makeup is required?

It should also be noted that when designing a storyboard thought about interesting camera angles should be applied as to make the sequence look as interesting as possible.

Other tips that Hart suggests is to generally practise the art of drawing such as proportion of anatomy and depth. Often black and white tones are used as it's simpler and easier to make out. Arrows are used to define movement, white arrows for movement of characters and black arrows for movement of the camera.

The key facts to take away are: careful consideration of what I'll be drawing, think about camera angles and make the action/sequence as clear as possible to follow.

Overall understanding how to create storyboard doesn't really seem that difficult and that it's generally learning how to tell a story/sequence through a series of images in the most visually interesting way possible. With this said I'm still going to try analyse at least one storyboard sequence.

The Characters of "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly"

2011-04-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

Since deciding on how I'll be re-imagining "TG,TB&TU" I thought it might be wise to look at the characters again to refamiliarise myself with their traits and personalities so that when I'm designing I can try visualise these traits into the concept pieces. In "TG,TB&TU" there are three main characters; The Man with No Name, Tuco and Angel Eyes.

The Man With No Name

Portrayed by Clint Eastwood, The Man with No Name (refered to as "Blondie" by Tuco) represents The Good. He is a sharp shot bounty hunter who is often quiet and reserved but also very cunning. "Blondie" is hard boiled but not above emotion, his trademark squint helps define this rugged look, beyond these details the history of the character and general air about him should feel mysterious and the audience do not learn much of his past as the film progresses. His colour pallet consites of light to medium dark browns with a light blue, apart of his trademark look is wearing a type of poncho. His weapons of choice are revolvers and a rilfe (where needed).

Tuco

Portrayed by Eli Wallach, Tuco Represents The Ugly of The film. A bandit with an unquenchable thirst for Greed, he's a character that can appear both bumbling (but not unskillful) and vengeful. He is a man with little honour who will rob from the dead given the chance. Tuco dresses very much in the similar attaire to a stereotypical bandit, large sombreo, black handle bar mustache etc. His colour palletes swing from medium to dark browns with gray, Tuco's weapon of choice is a custom revolver made from different parts of other revolvers.

Angel Eyes

Portrayed by Lee Van Cleef, Angel Eyes represents The Bad. A ruthless mercinary who always gets the job done but it should be noted he's not an uncivilised man and it's this cold look and smooth, calm demeanor that really makes Angel Eyes scary. His outfit consists of a Black hat and a dusty trench coat, like "Blondie" he is slender and this adds to his presence. Angels Ey's Colour pallet is in the dark spectrum from dark browns into black but his brilliant blue eyes should be noted, his prefered weapon is a revolver along with what ever weapon is needed to get the job done (shotguns, rifles).

On top of this re-familiarisation of the characters I feel that before I start to do any conceptual work I should sit down and watch the film once more and make note of design details, character traits and over all tone, but this is a good start as I'm already beginning to think of concepts in my mind.

Searching for a Third Party

2011-04-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

As part of my brief I set myself the task of completing a storyboard for a third party (or if I could not find one a sequence made by myself). Recently there was a post on the college forum about a Video competition being hosted by Vimeo, so I quickly replied "If anyone is entering this, hit me up as I can do storyboards for your video." But the deadline for the competition is 9th May so I don't know how motivated people will be to try and enter.

Regardless this is my first attempt to actively seek a third party to do work for. Luckily If it turns out I don't have a third party to work for I have a back up plan.

Deciding on the Details

2011-04-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

Whilst doing research I've been trying to decide how I'll re-invent/imagine/make the classic Sergio Leone film, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". To help me come to this decision I drew out this little brainstorm, I thought about various genres I should try change the storyline to and what audience (age and sex) it should appeal to, then I was to decide which medium it should appear in.

Ultimately my choices led to me to change "TG,TB&TU" into a sci-fi film for ages 15+. In short this is what one of my dream opportunities would be and since I'm in complete control of this brief I want to create something that I would watch. I decided to go with a Sci-fi setting as westerns can translate easily into the genre, StarWars is just a western in space when you boil down the details. I choose the audience for 15+ as I feel that the content in the original film would be suitable for this age group and I really don't want to deviant from the original's feeling of grit or dilute it's content (that would be required for younger viewers). It's also partly out of this respect for the original work that I want to keep the medium as a film.

I did consider changing the medium to a video game but there's already so many world roaming adventure games out there; "Red Dead Redemption", "Mass Effect", even the "Final Fantasy" games so I don't think it'd feel that special as a project, doubly so since my previous project included making artwork for a game.

Ultimately it's also an excuse for me to really let my imagination loose, I love sci-fi movies and a love westerns so it's going to be a fun process to try juxtapose the two into something really stunning. With that sorted I've decided to make "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: In SPAAAAAACE".

The Art of Mass Effect

2011-04-27T15:52:00.002-07:00

As part of my research into concept art I return to the book "The Art of Mass Effect" ( A book that collects the art work behind Bioware's scfi adventure game "Mass Effect") as it's an extremely good source of the amount of concept art and thought that goes into the design process of a piece of media. The book is a great souce as it outlines all major points of conceptual design such as character, costumes, vechiles, props and settings.

The artists use a range of techniques and predominately focus on digital tools rather than traditional ones (but they are still used in some places). In this blog post I'll be outlining some of the techniques used by the artists and commenting on the process of the overall design process.

It seems the process for creating a video game is very much like that of creating a film with the elabourate process of designing until everything feels just right. The first parts that are conceptualised it seems are the main characters, most likely as you'll be controlling one and interacting with them through the game, it also makes sense to build a character first as you can then build a world around that group and go back and adjust them further if need be.

Here lead concept artist Matt Rhodes draws a conceptual scene of Mass Effect's villian, an alien by the name of Saren. Completed digitally the styles drawn here is vastly different to the more realistic look of the game's version of Saren. This piece is important as it shows that concept art for a character can take place in a scene, this shows the qualities of the character better than a plain character-on-white design. The technique used by Rhodes is a line drawing coloured in with photoshop using a mix of burshes including those with textures.

It's good to keep in mind that a scene with a character can really help shape the qualities the director may want from the character and to highten the emotion the viewer will feel whilst watching.

Here we seen more of Rhode's designs, this time trying to establish a look for the alien Asari race that appears in the game. Most of the work is done in pencils and there is a large number of variations on the designs. Most likely Rhodes pumped these out as maybe slightly larger than thumbnail sketches until he found a design he was happy enough with the develop further.

It's important to note how many designs he did until Rhodes found one that he was confident with, on the left you can see the final design and it's vastly different from some of the preliminary sketches that were drawn. It'd be wise to bear in mind to not get to hung up on one idea and keep designing until you, as an artist have a good range to decide which to develop further.

With the main character's established it seems the artists went on to focusing on clothing designs for what human's and the other races may wear. Again this is complete using digital tools. It should be noted that a clear theme arises from which is generally a use of black with a secondary bold colour to even the design out.

It's imporatnat to note the continuity that the artists are creating here, slowly creating a breathing world that meshes well together, everything is designed to look asthough it belongs in that world and it's this level of keeping continuity in check that I will have to do when it comes to my own work.

Here we see one of Doug Chiang's rules being put into use. As part of the design process to create an insect like alien for the game Bioware artists are clearly doodling down various shapes and elabourating up on them. As Chiang states it's a good way to get some interesting looking designs and here the Bioware artists clearly use this method as a way of pumping out a collection of designs to the choose to elabourate on further.

With the characters and creatures of the Mass Effect universe created the designers then focused on vechiles. In comparison to the other pieces of the book these pieces are predominately completed with traditional methods rather than the other way around.

Again you can see definite themes with the large wheels and use of paneling. The designs are much stricter than those of the characters of creatures and have a much more "designed-as-a-product" look rather than something to appear in a film or game. Comparing these to the works of Doug Chiang it's clear to see that theres been a much more mechanical process put into these designs. They still illustrate their fucntions though as Chiang outlined these designs fall under the 3 second rule as you could easily imagine these vechile's functions by looking at them.

Again here we seen a range of possibilities for the final look for some of the games weapons. Starting out as a range of pencil drawings until one is chosen to be developed upon, notice though how unlike the vechiles these props are drawn from the side on making it much easier to see the detail, something that should be kept in mind when I come to designing some props.

From there the more developed designs recieve a dose of digital colour. The book contains more designs for props such as tables, chairs, walls etc and these are drawn from a view point rather than just face one so this could just be limited to the weapons. What's important to bring away from this is just the subtle changes added to a design before it reaches the final version.

With everything else designed, the only thing left for the Bioware artists to do is develop the worlds of Mass Effect. Each piece seems to be completed using Digital tools and techniques but as I've stated in a previous project some of the pieces exist only to help define the feeling and atmosphere of an enviroment.

With in these scenes action takes place to show how characters of the game may interact with the space given to them which helps bring the realisation of the final version closer and closer. As these concepts are developed more secure designs are put in placing combining 3d models with digital paintings to outline the layout of a level. It's interesting to see a technique as such used but it's also a logical step in creating the final version, slowly replacing the painting componenets with the secure finalised CG counterpart.

From this anaylsis I feel I've learned even more including the re-enforcement of techniques used by Doug Chiang are also used by other industry professionals, solidfying their worth as rules to adhear to when designing. It's also relieving to see that theres a distinct difference is visual aesthetics from the concept art to the final product as it means I don't have to worry about trying to be untral realistic should I choose to complete my designs for a film or game where realism is a key part of the product.

This anaylsis has also re-enforced a sense of completing numerous designs before choosing to develop any and that there are many considerations to think about when designing a whole world from characters to the environments they inhabit.

With each extra bit of research I feel more relaxed about the practical aspect of my project.

Ken Recommends: Thor

2011-04-27T15:52:00.001-07:00

Thor
Release: 27/4/11
Running Time: 114 mins.
Studio: Paramount & Marvel Studios
Genre: Fantasy/Comedy
Rating: 12A
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writer: Ashley Miller (Screen play) & J. Michael Straczynski (Story)
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins & Natalie Portman

The Summer blockbusters were kicked off this month with Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch and that was met with mixed responses but it wasn't until the arrival of Thor did it really feel like the blockbusters were coming. This summer Super Heroes will rule the box office, with Captain America and Green Lantern still to be released it's hard to tell who will be the hero of 2011, fortunately Thor's got a head start but will that be the decidng factor?

After being exiled from Asgard and stripped of his Powers Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the God of Thunder has been banished to Earth where in his entrance cause more than ripples in the water. Whilst on earth Thor's entrance attracts the attention of a group of local Physicists but also a large shady organisation, in his absence Thor's brother Loki, the trickster God (played by Tom Hiddleston) takes the throne of Asgard after Odin (Hopkins) is taken into the Odinsleep. Loki plans to change Asgard for his own selfish means, can Thor regain his powers a return to Asgard to stop him?

This movie is a blockbuster there will be no award winning scripts here but what Thor is, is fun. It really feels like a comic book movie, if you've watched Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk theres definetly a sense that these movies are connected (and just not by the upcoming Avengers movie in 2012) but in tone, if you've enjoyed movies from Marvel Studios so far theres a good chance you're going to enjoy Thor.

The cast is great and theres some real subtlty to some of the scenes, especially with Loki and Odin, where acting falls short though is during the Earth scenes where Thor interacts with physicist Jane Foster (Portman) and friends. These character's arn't interesting and feel one dimensional, seemingly to only have two thoughts on their minds after the first third of the film is over. Overall the acting from the gods is compelling and draws you in for fun and excitement where as the humans are dull and feel tacked on just to give Thor any sort of connection to Earth, where as it might have been a better pay off to see him survive without Locals to guide him.

The visuals seem ropey at the start of the film until you see that first panning shot of Asgard. You could really believe that this is a city of Gods and the design for costumes is really unique, think Conan meets Star Wars and you begin to get an idea of what it's like. Again it's the scenes in Asgard that are really memorable. The editing and pacing of the film is overall well put together as it should be from Branagh, but there were a few instances where in an extra three seconds to convey an action would have just made it a little smoother in places.

Like all super hero movies it's down to that final showdown between good and evil and it really does pay off with stunning visual, the best scene is seeing brother Loki and Thor duke it out.

With some good twists you may not expect from your standard super hero movie Thor is worth spending money on (I recommend 2D as I couldn't see anything 3D could add to the experience). Although Let down by Hemsworth and Portman's scenes in what feels a little like a forced romance between the two, the movie still stands up with many qualities that out shines that blemish. Thor is a great start to the summer movie season and enjoyable for both fans and movie goers.

And as always there's a scene at the end of credits to wet your mouths for upcoming Marvel Studio Projects.

Electroshock Blues Plus Free EPs

2011-04-27T04:32:00.001-07:00

This morning as I was playing around on my guitar looking up songs to learn etc. When I came across a write up of various Eel Songs. One of my favourite albums by Eels is "Electro-Shock Blues" so I started seeing what was there to learn and after a while I ended up recording a short cover of the title track from the album in only 2 hours, which I feel is an achievement..I think...

Along with this I've created music in the past that I posted up on myspace but I've decided to up the ante and release the first EP in all it's imperfection and a Sampler (or Single if you want to rate me so highly) of the new album I'm working on titled "Tight Dope" which includes the title track, "Dr Jesus Removed my Appendix [feat. Buzz Crandel]" and the cover of Eel's "Electro-Shock Blues".

This whole making music hobby thing has been a learning process as I go along, some songs may sound better than others as I'll have learned something new about the instruments and programs that I use, it's kind of what's made this so much fun to do, learning as I make progress.

Whilst the First EP, with it's wonderfully pretentious name "20//13:12//2,000+10" may be a little more technical is musical terms, I feel that with the upcoming "Tight Dope" I'm stepping into a pair of shoes that was meant to fit me. Anyway to download either of the EPs click the links below, or check out the links to the side.

"20//13:12//2,000+10"

Please, if you've downloaded any of these files leave me a comment. It'd be cool to get some feed back!

[Edit, I've removed tight dope for the time being as I've realised that it's not quite at the level of quality I want, so until then...]

Doug Chiang's Keys to Good Design

2011-04-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

In his book, Mechanika, Doug Chiang outlines 6 tips that he believes makes a good and lasting concept design;

1. A Strong Silhouette

Design for iconic shapes. Always think in terms of strong silhouettes before focusing on the fine details. Squinting your eyes occansionally will help you concentrate on this. Remember, details embelish the overal design but don't determine it.

2. The Three-Second Rule

With Iconic shapes in mind, create designs that can be understood in three seconds or less. The three-second rule evolved out of my film experience. Often audiences have less than three seconds to understand what they are viewing before the shot changes, so it is essential to keep the design clear. For example, if it's a vehicle, the viewer must be able to determine quickly where the pilot sits, in which direction the vechile is going, it's purpose, etc. These things may sound simple, but they are often neglected. Always strive to keep the overall form easy to understand.

3. Personality

Ask yourself: Is this design powerful? Weak? Menacing? Are those the traits reflected in the design? When Personality is infused into your designs, the end result is more effective.

4. Functionality

Would the design work? You must have an idea how your design would function. Confirm functionality before moving onto the next question.

5. Believability

Is it plausable? Does it look as if it can perform the function that you designed it to? This is the believability test. This doesn't mean that every joint and hinge needs to be figured out in great detail, but a basic appearance of practical function is essential.

6. Cool Factor

This one is very subjective and a bonus if it can be achieved. This is the emotional difference between a sports car and a commutuer car. Both vehicles are made for transport and both have the same basic configuration, but one addresses it's purpose with much greater flair. Do the same in your designs.

These are some pretty good guide lines to keep in mind when it comes to designing and I feel that Mechanika has been a huse help in understanding the methods and techniques that a professional can use. Next I'll be moving on from Mechanika and starting to look at work from various "art of" books.

Projects on the Side

2011-04-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Whilst I've got this main project of negotiated study to do I've (Foolishly) added some personal projects into the mix, but the good thing is I've not really set a deadline any time soon for these so they're not going to get in the way of my uni projects.

The first is an extremely long on going project that I'm determined to get complete by the end of July with is my home effort of a comic that features the adventures of a small ninja called Fu. I originally started this back in late 2009 in my last year of college and have ever now and then gone back to add to it. Now the comic it self is only 8 pages long and I only got round to finishing the pencils for it oh, just last APRIL! That's right April 2010, over a year ago! So far there are 2 and a half pages inked, I plan to get completed and published by the end of July/start of August then, hopefully a completely new story featuring Fu of at least 8 pages out will by November 2011(Thought Bubble anyone?).

Another Ancient Relic that hangs around my room are two Qee keyrings that I bought some Eons ago. I recently took it upon myself to finally paint them (as white is a terribly boring colour). I'm using citidel paints that I'm sure many of you remember painting your warhammer models with as they're pretty good once you water them down abit. I know this as I had previously tried to paint a Munny but it went disastourously wrong.

A good tip before starting painting is I drew up some designs before doing anything else and another key element to painting these things is patience and a steady hand.

Every once in a while if I make progress with these projects I'll post whats going on with them, Peace out!

The Doug Chiang Process

2011-04-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

Previously I looked at a range of tools and techniques from Professional Conceptual Designer Doug Chiang, in this post I'll be looking more indepth at the process he under takes when designing, from concept to final version. I'll be looking at his Comm Robot from Mechanika as it includes uses of both traditional and non-traditional tools.

Chiang first decides on traits he'd like to put in his design, "I wanted to create a communications robot that was friendly, functional and a dependable worker. The tutrle became my inspiration." He next starts out with his marker sketching technique using a Cool Grey 30% marker. He keeps the shapes soft and round "The large ball on the Robot's back releftcs the turtle-shell influence."

Next come the further shape refinements. Chiang continues using the Cool Grey 30% marker until "Interesting minor shapes emerge". He adds a large ring on the back to act as a satellite to draw attention to the fact that the robot's purpose is for communication. This also gives the design a very unique and recognisable silhouette.

Foundation lines come next. Using his pens and ellipse tool to fill in the larger round shapes and his trinagle to add the perspective and action lines. Here Chiang notes "The diagonal action line through the upper arm shows that the arm is being raised up and back, away from the vertical orientation of the legs."

Chiang also cites that he uses a triangle instead of a ruler as the shape of the triangle is easier to grip and maneuver around the paper, the inking edge also prevents bleed and smearing of the ink.

Moving on Chiang begins to define and refine the details of his design. He first begins with the ellipses and main areas of the design such as the head, he works downwards "Pulling out mechanical shapes" as he goes along and adding detail. Continuing with the pen work Chiang moves around the drawing adding in the detail. He states that "Sometimes coming back later to an arm or a leg allows you to see forms that weren't evident earlier".

As the line work nears completion, Chiang will look over the drawing to make sure the line work and form is balanced, he suggestes when it comes to your own work complement shapes in your design by "juxtaposing large areas with smaller detailed areas", Once you reach the right amount of detail, large shapes and detail will be well balanced giving the drawing a unified look.

This stage seems to be very critical to Chiang's work as he starts off with nothing but basic shapes and adds the detail as he goes along, this technique seems very beneficial and not to difficult to learn but I have a feeling it's fairly hard to master.

Next comes the tone markers. Chiang starts off by define the direction of the light source in the scene, then begins to block in the main tones, in this image he starts with the large turle-shelled back and moves forwards. This is because the markers dry quickly and it's easier to get larger sections done in one swoop rather than start with smaller details in the foregorund and work backwards.

The design is nearing completion, using White paint and a brush Chiang adds highlights to the robot. He cautions to "Avoid over working the drawing" and that highlights should be use sparingly. Still at this stage Chiang's adding detail, finally adding hanging cables between the legs to complement the satellite on top.

The tip of not going over board on highlights it a good one as I've personally had projects in which I've added far too many highlights to an image, ultimately ruining it.

Finally Chiang scans the design into Photoshop and adds a colour tint of a green-grey to both the image and the background. On a new layer he adds "abstract colour patterns and textures" mixing them into the drawing by changing the layer qualities to soft light mode. For his final touches he uses the colour dodge tool to enhance the highlights on the robot's belly.

This process is a great example of a professional at work who knows how to streamline his work load in that he can create a final design in just a few steps. Chiang's process is one that I feel I will emulate until I develop my own system to creating cocnept art, there are some truly innotive techniques here such as the use of foundation lines that I previously didn't know about and the several steps to using markers, whilst I had previously used markers before it wasn't until know that I was informed of the way to use them effectively.

I feel that Doug Chiang's Mechanika has already come in great use and is going to be a useful companion long into the practical side of this project.

The Tools and Techniques of Doug Chiang

2011-04-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

Doug Chiang is a professional conceptual artist whom has worked for Industrial Light and Magic, working on many projects from "Terminator 2" to "Death Becomes" Her. In '95 Chiang left ILM to become Design Director for "Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace" which lead to work on the sequal "Attack of the Clones". Recently Chiang released the book "Mechanika: Creating the art of science fiction", which outline many of the techniques that the award winning artist uses including step by step processes on how he creates some of his pieces.

In his book Chiang out lines what tools he uses and why, these include:

Post-it notes (3"x3")
Premium white 28-lb. (105 gsm) colour copier paper, (11"x17")
Prismacolour Markers (black and cool grey: 30&, 50%, 60%, 70%)
8" 45/90 degree plastic triangle with inking edge
12" metal ruler
Airmarker system
Blueline pencil
Adobe Photoshop
Craft Knife
Daler-Rowney Pro Wite Opaque water colour paint
Fine tip black pen
Pointed round kolinsky sable brush 1/15"
Scissors
Small and large ellipse guides (Sizes 10-80 degrees)
Spray adhesive
White vinyl eraser.

Chiang explains the use of his tools citing that his choices here are purely what he has found that works so brands of paper and marker are interchangable to a person's preference. He does recommend that when using a marker use the broader nib as they get a really sense of dynamics relating to the pressure you put on them, he also suggests paper that doesn't allow the markers to bleed. When using markers Chiang notes that it's best to work from the background to the foreground going from larger to small shapes and round to flat shapes. In Mechanika, Chiang is also an advocate of art tool modification citing "If what's on the market doesn't suit your needs, alter it" revealing that all of his Star Wars production paintings were completed with a ruler that had lego bricks glued to the bottoms to make a cutom "Artist's Bridge".

"An artist's bridge is like a ruler with a wedge underneath each edge so it doesn't lie flat on a piece of paper but stands above it. Resting your wrist or forearm on an artist's bridge steadies your hand. Or you can use the edge to paint or draw a straight line -- even if the paint is wet if the bridge isn't standing on your painting."

http://painting.about.com/od/artglossarya/g/defartistbridge.htm, 2011

When it comes to starting a design Chiang incorporates either of this two methods as his starting point, the first one (which he cites as his favourite) is by using marker sketches. Using a Cool Grey 30% marker 'as it's dark enough to see, yet light enough not to over power the final pen work' he focuses on the overal shape of a design, reassuringly he says not to be afraid of making mistakes as they could lead to new shapes which could end up being used in the final design.

I can definetly see the pros of this method as it allows for a quick design to be built upon in a short amount of time and by using the light marker you can just draw your design over it instead of having to get some overlay paper to draw it on to.

Chiang's next method for starting a design is by using post-it notes and the blue pencil. He cites this method as "a great technique to use if you don't have strong inital ideas". Due to the small size the post-it forces the artist to think in major shapes rather than details, chiang also cites that with this method theres less pressure and it allows an artist to create multiple ideas in a short amount of time. This method does come with a con though as the artist will have to re-draw their favourite idea on a larger piece of paper to work with.

I feel this method might be great for coming up with props, veichles and animals that may appear in a narrative rather than characters and it really is a great process for pumping out ideas, it's definetly one that I'll be trying.

It should be noted that both of these methods can be replicated via photoshop which gives me another choice when it comes to preference.

One technique that Chiang uses when designing is the use of foundation lines. These come in 3 types; Perpective, Sontruction and Action Lines, all of these line serve to guide the artist's hand to creating the final image but each have an individual purpose in their own right.

Perspective Lines serve to keep the object being drawn in proportion and proper depth. Chiang cites that he doesn't rigidly place these down but more approximates as he feels this keeps the drawing "Organic and alive". He also states that a firm understanding of two and three point perspective is esstial.
Construction Lines are similar to perspective lines but serve to help control and delinate the form of the drawing. More often they work as guide lines to tie two or mort componenets in the drawing together.
Action Lines guide the action of a stucture giving it thrust, a dynamic composition or just simply a main axis for the form.

Chiang's Mechanika is a treasure trove of information for those looking to seriously get into conceptual design and I feel I'll be using more of this book to draw information from. Just from reading the first few pages I already feel much more confident in my work, although most of Chiang's tips refer to mechanical structures I feel they could be put to organic designs as well. I can't wait to try some of the professional techniques for myself.

Get Doug Chiang's Mechanika from Amazon now!
Mechinka: Creating The Art of Science Fiction

Types of IP Re-Invention

2011-04-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Over the last decade or so it seems that re-inventions of exisiting interlectual properties have emerged as a more common place thing. The whole idea behind the re-invention of an IP is to bring in a new audience, with in the whole concept of re-invention of an IP there is generally two types:

Re-Make: Which is generally "A piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium".

So in example: The abundance of Horror movie remakes we've seen in recent years, but it's also seen in both Video games and comics. Often these re-makes are an attempt to modernise the original IP and bring in a younger audience.
Re-Interpretation: Similar to a Re-Make but often they do not follow the original IP in either characters, setting, or medium.

This type of Re-invention is to bring in a whole new audience whom may not have liked or were targeted by the original IP. Often The characters will take on radical changes from their originals. A Classic example of this is the Samurai film Yojimbo was Re-Interpreted as a Western film; "A Fistful of Dollars".

In many cases it seems just as much with new IPs that these re-inventions have just as much as a hit or miss ratio. Most often it's seems that it's due to a strong fan base of the original they re-act negatively to the changes. As this project progresses I will be looking at various IPs that have gone under inventions and analyse them (Such as the Marvel Super Hero Squad pictured)

Due to my choice of choosing to Re-invent "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" I feel that meerly just choosing to re-make it would be uninteresting as a project as it'd just be the standard western to the current generation. From here I feel that a re-interpretation would be better, for now it's just trying to decide How I shall re-interpret one of the best westerns ever made?

What makes a good Storyboard?

2011-04-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

In previous projects, aswell as using Concept Art I've also used Storyboards, but only in a limited sense. The last time I did create a storyboard was for an opening to a movie, what was notible was a huge jump in quality between previous efforts. So I feel I'm on the way to being fairly competent storyboard artist.

When looking at professional storyboards it seems that the type of thought process that goes into creating a storyboard is similar to that of a comic, lining up a frame of where camera angles will be. Ultimately showing what should appear on camera.

Another thing that should be noted is that storyboards can have varying levels of complexity in their drawings, but the most important thing is that the images show what should happen on screen clearly. More often than not storyboards are completed in pencils and tones, sometimes with Markers. What's important to remeber is that storyboards often show the action in the scene where as concept art's purpose is to show the detail and design of the items in the scene.

As with concept art as I research more about storyboards I'm sure more inforamtion about the artform will reveal itself along with tricks and techniques but the general rules seem to be. Basically it seems that a good storyboard contains Good composition and is easily readible as an action scene.

What Makes a Good Piece of Concept Art?

2011-04-23T14:17:00.001-07:00

As mentioned previously I've completed projects where I've had to touch upon concept art research, through this research I discovered that there were two types; Environmental and Character designs whilst are different have similar processes

Concept Art may first have a rough design that gets the feel of the area in the first draft and will ultimately look like this, detailed, well thought out and presented almost like a frozen screen shot from a film. Notice that with only the use of grey tones and blacks that depth and atmosphere is easily created.

It's the thought process and development of building up from rougher drafts to more final stages. Concept art can be created using digital or traditional methods but through my research it seems the more rougher pieces of work are created using digital tools and the more technical and detailed ones are created using solely traditional or a mixture of both.

It seems that the best concept art shows not just the technical aspect of a scene or a character but also an atmosphere or a presence. It's this quality of mixing atmosphere with detail that makes good concept and I will be keeping this in mind when it comes to creating my own work.

Here I've only just touched on Concept art for this project as I begin to research it in more depth over the coming posts I'm sure to learn much more about the art of conceptualising.

Tools I'll be Using

2011-04-22T02:34:00.001-07:00

Previously I've done several projects that required the use of concept art, so I'm familiar with a fair range of tools.

For this project I will be using a mix of Traditional and Non-Traditional art tools to create my body of work. First of all I will be using my trusty pencil case, filled with things such as a range of Pencils with different shades, a range of pens with various nib width. A new addition to my pencils case though is a Blue Pencil Crayon, this is due to after reading Mechanika: How to create science fiction art, the author Doug Chiang often uses a blue pencils at first to sketch out various shapes before starting onto the next step with conceptualising, blue is chosen as it constrasts very well against pencils and allows the artist to clearly seen where his next set of lines should be. In fact I also recently learned that Comic artists do the same thing as you can make the blue invisible when it comes to scanning the work. Not shown is a collection of Copic brand markers for colouring traditionally, most importantly the grey tone markers will be used in the early stages of conceptualising.

Along with pencils and pens I will also be using rulers but also a drawing table as due to it's titled angle it helps the artist keep everything in proportion as whilst working on a flat horizontal surface a pieces can become skewed due to the angle from which the artists is working on. I'll also be using 3 types of paper, Kent Paper (B4 size), Bristol Board (A3 size) and Layout paper (A3). The Kent and Bristol Board are much thicker and are a personal preferance as they're easier to draw inks on but pencils must be used very lightly on it. The layout paper is to trace over designs and make any changes without having to redraw the whole thing again, say I want to change the design of a hat worn by a character, instead of rubbing out I just place the layout paper of and draw a new hat on there photoshopping it in afterwards.

The non-traditional tools that I will be using are all essentially digital tools. I'll be using my computer thats set up with a Wacom (Bamboo fun) tablet and an extra moniter (Should it be required). My computer is equiped with Adobe CS3 (Photoshop and Illustrator). I also have Art Rage and Corel Painter to use giving me a wide options. These programs can be used to create completely digital works or scan in traditional ones so that they will be coloured and added to digitally.

Overall I think I'm well eqipped to start the practical side of this project. As I go through this project I will note which tools I have used for which piece of practical work.

Time Management

2011-04-22T02:32:00.001-07:00

Time management is an important factor of any project with multiple deadlines, in this negoticated study there are two deadlines:

Intrim Crit' (3rd May)
Final Dead line (3rd June)

Within this time I also have a critical report for another project to write so I have to factor that in.

For the Intrim crit I should have a collection of all my research and the starting steps of my practical work to present, after that date it's time to blast on full steam ahead with practical work. Ideally I want my schedule for my project to look like this:

All Research & Development and decision making.
Intrim Crit.
Complete practical work.
Deadline.

Within the R&D stages I should have collected enough information to start doing my designs based of information from books and on the internet, this will range from notable concept/storyboard artists to techniques and professional protocal. Within this R&D stage I will also be trying to secure a third party to complete a storyboard for.

From there the practical stage will be creating the storyboard and designs I set out to do after the R&D using the tools and techniques I've learned from the R&D stage.

With due dates now in line I feel more focused and prepared for this project.

Books That I Will Be Using

2011-04-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

For this negotiated brief I will be using awider selection of books than I have for previous projects as I want to really increase my knowledge and understanding of the process of creating conceptual art. In my own collection of books I have quite a few art of books which come from both movies, games and tv shows including some basic art (& how to) books.

The most notable books that I can foresee me using for the conceptual art in my research from here will be:

The Art of Star Wars Episode II
Caught in the web: Dreaming up the world of Spider-Man 2
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy & Sci-fi fiction art Techniques
The Art of Hellboy
Mechanika: How to create Science fiction Art
The Art of Mass effect
Imagine FX (Magazine)

When it comes to the storyboarding section of the R&D I'll most likely be using:

The Fundamentalsof Film Making
How to draw comics the Marvel way
Animation: From Pencils to Pixels

Ontop of this in my personal collection I have various art books that I can draw influence from when it comes to the designing stage of the concept art. In the following posts as I go through the project I will be noting how each of these books contributed to the learning of new skills or techniques, or possibly doing posts about what is featured in those books which makes good concept art.

Ofcourse this is just my collection of books, on tuesday I will be looking over the univeristies library for any more books that could be useful. The more I write about the preperation for this project the more excited I'm getting to start it!

How I Decided What to Do for My Negotiated Brief

2011-04-21T14:16:00.001-07:00

For this project the first challenge was to establish whart I wanted to do for my negoticiated brief. I knew intially that I wanted to focus on my conceptual art skills, I looked to various optionas in how I could complete a brief via this method. I considered doing some live briefs such as the Pepsi Film Festival of the D&DA Disney Brief, but ultimately I opted for creating my own brief as none of the ones I looked at fitted my idea for what I wanted to do.

I decided to start with the base theme of creating concept art and stemed two branches from there looking at either re-inventing an exisiting IP or creating my own. I decide to choose re-invention as it would save on a lot of R&D time to start with something that already exists but also because it would be a fun challenge to try give something a fresh coat of paint, so to speak.

From there I tried to decide on what IP I would re-invent. I decided that I would write a list of all IPs that I'm interested in to see if anything sparks inspiration in my mind. I first thought about re-inventing a fantasy genre film as something else, starting off with titles such as "The Lord of The Rings", "Jason & The argonaunts" etc. I then came across the idea of re-inventing the Japanese film "Yojimbo" but I remebered that it had already been done as the western movie "A Fist Full of Dollars", this lead me to choose "The Good, The bad and The Ugly" as my choice of IP.

Originally I wanted to re-invent it as a Sci-fi but at these early stages of R&D I want to keep the direction I want to go in open as I want to research more IPs that have gone through re-inventions.

Below are more pages from my Notebook from when I was trying to decide what to do.

Check This Out : Pandora's Tower

2011-04-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

Earlier last year Nintendo announced a new game was in development for the Wii by the title "Pandora's Tower". Over the last few months details about the game trickled out, it was revealed that it'll be an action RPG in which a young girl Ceres is cursed and it's up to a soldier by the name of Ende to collect the flesh of demons in the tower to lift her of the curse.

Overall the game seems to be a fairly standard afair of action-adventure and that Japanese style of RPGs that fall along the ilk of Final Fantasy & Co. Most recently though a trailer was released that really picked up my interest in the title as whilst the game looks fun gameplay wise it's the designs of the monsters that Ende will have to fight, theres some really unique looking creatures and with a really stylised look that puts the same old monsters seen in Final Fantasy to Shame.

Check out the trailer below and look carefully at the monster designs!

It's small details in the monster designs like the use of iconography, and the large flat teeth that really give a lasting effect, also the colour pallet of blacks and golds give a very powerful look to the creatures which makes you think that "yeah, this is gonna be an epic battle".

Pandora's Tower is due out in Japan May 26th 2011, with a US and Europian release pending.

This is sort of a shame as the most recent game from Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of Final Fantasy) by the title of "The Last Story" hasn't seen a western release yet and it'd be nice to get some cool RPGs on the Wii.

A New Project!

2011-04-20T15:56:00.001-07:00

In this new project from DFGA I have a complete choice what I decide to do for it, essentially setting my own brief. This concept will be negotiated with my tutors until a suitable project can be made from my initial idea for what to complete.

For this project I have tasked myself with re-inventing an exisiting IP for a new audience. For this I have chosen to re-invent the film "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", ideally I want to create a new take on this classic story, coincidentally this film comes from a series which includes a re-invention of the film "Yojimbo" by Akira Kurosawa.

In the research and development stages of the project I will be deciding what this re-invention will be for; film, video game, comic or a tv series. During this stage I'll also be trying to determine a target audience for this new product.

I will be achieving the objective of this project by creating concept art for character designs of the the three main characters, at least one setting/environment and one prop. I decided to choose this method for completing the brief as I really want to focus on my strong points and create some high quality pieces of work for my portfolio.

During this project I'll be looking at books that contain concept art for a variety of medias, ranging from games to films and any other books I can get my hands on. I'll also be researching and analysing similar IPs that have gone through re-inventions themselves to figure out the method and purpose for it. I'll also be researching the proper tools used by industry standard conceptual artists.

In this project I also want to add storyboards to my portfolio, ideally I would like to go out and acquire a third party in need of a storyboard sequence, be it industry or indy. If failing that I could always try storyboard a scene from my re-invented IP, I'm doing this as both a portfolio builder but alo to improve my storyboarding skills. This ofcourse will be followed up with research and critical anaylses of industry standard storyboards.

My project is a very conceptual based as it's really the area in the creative media industry that I would like to see myself in. With this in place I'm already about to start rewatching "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" to get a feel of the characters and environment.

18,000

2011-04-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Apparently I've had over 18,000 page views, now previously I thought I only had 5,000 and around the time I hit that my previous counter broke. So I've no idea if this counts pageviews or unique visitors, but still it's pretty awesome potentially 18,000 people have found my webpage.

Wooden Video Game Consoles

2011-04-19T05:13:00.000-07:00

Whilst Browsing Destructoid today I came across this, A custom built Neo-Geo home console, but with a different, this casing is made of wood, Currently it's availible to buy at www.analogueinteractive.com/.

Now this is pretty awesome and really lends some old fashion class to the console, looking at it it got me thinking...how hard could it be? and could I do it to a PS2? I've had a Playstation 2 since around 2001 so it's atleast 10 years old and considering you can still buy them (for a low price) I thought it might be cool to give it a try.

Now the first step is going to be planning, because the hardware is much more advanced than a cartridge based system I'm going to have to consider problems such as potential electrical hazards. Also the PS2 has a fan at the back and I feel that it would be best to keep a plastic grill for the fan as making one out of wood may seem cumbersome but also it probably won't be as effective. So far all I have is an image in my head of the original PS2's body but in wood and much simpler.

First I'll need to draw up some blue prints beofre anything else happens. This project is going to be a little time consuming so considering I still have 2 months of uni and then moving house after that I'm going to weight after. I might be revealed that the task is too difficult or hazardous but I feel it should be achievable. The only thing left to decided at this stage is what wood to use.

Interested in this Project? leave a comment!

End of Module

2011-03-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

With my essay and blogposts complete, I've finished this module for contextual studie. It has been a long but ultimately rewarding experience, along the way I've learned many new things about moving type, communication, film theory that has helped me form informative opinions about them in conversations and talk about them with the proper evidence to back up my subject/opinion.

I've also completed an essay in which I also learned alot about the hidden culture in the internet and how it's influencing our society slowly. I also learned a great deal about the subject of anonyminty and how it often reveals people's true opinions and intentions.

Overall I'm proud of the progress I've made in this module and have found it an interesting journey from start to finish, along the way I've learned many new things that has helped me develop my skills in contextual writing but also developed my way of thinking.

Research Sources (Part 2)

2011-03-29T12:26:00.001-07:00

In this post I'll continue looking at my research sources and highlight their content and why I chose them.

'Can Video Gaming Cross from Innocent Fun to Addiction?', BBC News by Rapheal Rowe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9251000/9251687.stm

This article was chosen as it once again looks at the effects of videogame content and the influence it can have on a developing mind, it also goes into detail about the subject matter of potential addiction to videogames including how other places outside of UK deal with videogame addiction such as South Korea. This helped me bulk up my information on the effects that video games can have on adults and children.

'Teen Banned from Halo 3, Shoots Parents in Retribution'
http://www.destructoid.com/teen-banned-from-halo-3-shoots-parents-in-retribution-114760.phtml

'39% of British Parents let Kids Play Adult Games'
http://www.destructoid.com/39-of-british-parents-let-kids-play-adult-games-159498.phtml

'UK Politician: Games Cause Kids to Lose their Childhood'
http://www.destructoid.com/uk-politician-games-cause-kids-to-lose-their-childhood-161517.phtml

'Mom Turns Kid’s Xbox Off, gets Taco Thrown in Face'
http://www.destructoid.com/mom-turns-kid-s-xbox-off-gets-taco-thrown-in-face-118279.phtml
All Articles by James Sterling for the journalist website Destructoid.

Amounst all the research sources I had I thought it's be wise to try find actual evidence of the effects that I was researching taking place. I often check the website destructoid and remember various stories about domestic violence and video games of the many results I got from searching the website these four proved to be the most useful and relevent in cases where it wasn't just a child throwing a large scale tantrum due to being punished. I ended up using a good few of these in my final essay.

'Clive Thompson on How Tweets and Texts Nurture in-depth Analysis' by Clive Thompson
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/st_thompson_short_long/

This article on Wired Magazine's website addressed the issue of the change in peoples attention span by noting things such as twitter and text messaging has meant people can say shorter things more often instead of a lengthy update once a week for example, ultimately focusing on how Newspapers may become outdated due to speedy updates but monthly magazines will still exist as they're more comprehensive. This article proved to be massively useful as it showed a change in peoples behaviour due to technological advancements, it also highlighted a new way of thinking thats becoming increasingly present in society.

'Panorama, Addicted to games?' by Jeremy Vine and Rapheal Rowe
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wlmj0#broadcasts

The focus of this episode of panorama has the potential threat that video games can pose to society with their addictive mechanics and espacism. The Show also highlighted incidents with interviews from teens (predominately teenage males) who had lashed out due to not being able to get their 'fix'. Whilst it was done in a nuetral critical anlysis the general message was that there are dangers to online communities and video games, but several keey pieces of information did come from it that I used in my essay such as the quote "There are only addictive personalities", the show was ensightful too and offered a great deal of information through the reviewers it conducted.

Beyond these sources I also have personally seen the effects that the internet can have on society such as effect the manner in which people speak using words or terms that were previously exclusive to the internet such as 'lol' or 'epic' to the point where it's non sensical, most of these terms were used by teens between 12-18. I had also investigate a variety of forums including one infamous image board forum where all users appear anonymously resulting a very free speech environment and is a complete example of some of the themes and topics that the articles that I looked at touched upon.

Overall I feel that I looked at a good range of sources but it could have been improved with more academic sources, something I plan to rectify when it comes to dissertation writing.

Research Sources (Part 1)

2011-03-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

In the process of writing my essay I used many sources but only a few of the research sources (some featured in the Essay notes post) were used. In the following Blog Posts I plan to highlight the sources I used and why.

'The Real World Effects of Online Gaming: Socially Inept' By Colin Andrew
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1712963/the_realworld_effects_of_online_gaming.html?cat=41

This online post about the real world effects proved to be incredibly useful as it outlined all the subjects I wanted to touch upon especially that of anonyminty in online gaming. The article does take a stereotypical view of gamers at one point noting that some fore go bath and basic hygiene but validates that by explaining that it's a source of dettachment for society and it's established norms. Overall the post proved to be very useful as it touches real issues but not in an overblown manner in which video games are sometimes portrayed as instantly negative in the media.

'Leet', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia by Anonymous
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

This entry on Wikipedia was used to research the ins and outs of the online speech known as 'leet','1337' or leetspeak. From here I learned it's origins and in what circumstances that it's used, in the end I only really touched on the subject in my essay but it's still a valuable part of my essay as it highlights the fact that the internet is becoming a culture in itself with it's own language.

'Internet Meme', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia by Anonymous
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme

I also used this entry to further look into the origins of the term and definition of a 'Meme'. This proved again a small but pivitol part in my essay again relating to the fact that the internet is building up it's own specialised culture with it's own in jokes. The origins also proved to be interesting as it comes from outside the internet many years before it's invention.

'To Define Culture in a Virtual World' by The Cyberpunk Project
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/virtual_culture.html

This article deals with more the development of any culture rather than one specific, it cites real world examples of how some cultures are formed through symbols and preceptions of deities. Overall it uses media examples to present the concept of how cultures are formed which made it easier to digest with familiar knowledge of the refereance points. Overall this proved useful in helping me cement the theory of internet culture.

'Effects of Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviour During Development' by Thomas Kooijmans
http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/kooijmans.html

This article by Kooijman's focuses more on the effect the actual content a video game can have on people citing that there have been isolated cases of increased aggression in players. Whats good about this article is that it also includes works by other authors in response to Kooijmans' post including one that highlights the positive effects. This article would prove to be very useful when it came to how the internet culture is influencing younger participants.

'Internet Culture' by David Porter
Routledge; excerpts also available at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zmMLSZJPXoIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=internet+culture+by+david+porter&hl=en&ei=2gs6TZn7JcPKhAe8pYGMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

The book internet culture proved to be a great source for finding out the various levels of interaction that people have via the internet, the passages that I read focused on anonyminty and how it eases people into saying their true feelings, it also deals with the subject of collective imagination and how the imuursion in the internet culture can see effects in peoples mannerisms outside it. This is massively relevant to my essays subjects as it deals with the effects that the internet and anonymity can bring upon a person and how it can effect their life outside of the internet.

Essay Writing Notes

2011-03-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Whilst writing my Essay for contextual studies I created a number of notes to use in my essay, most of them a just noting out important pieces of information I found in my sources whilst searching for relevant pieces of information/quotes that I can use. But I did also do essay mind maps when I was trying to decide what I would write about an I also wrote an essay plan to outline how I was going to tackle the task of writing the essay. This post is really more of a behind the scenes look at the process I took to create my essay.

Here at the two mind maps I created when trying to finalise what I would write about, ultimately deciding to focus on online culture of the internet and gaming. From there I started my research and started making these notes below based on the information I found that I believed I could use.

Below in the centre is a scan of my essay plan in which I outline where I will talk about subjects and how they should all ultimately form into the conclusion. In the final scan on the right is my collection of BBC sources and a small doodle I had obviously done to celebrate the end of my researching stage.

Most of the notes included the URLs and book titles where I got my information and I feel this comprehensively chronicles a good portion of the effort I put into the process of writing my essay.

Writing and Well Being (Part 2)

2011-03-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

In the previous post I outlined the 7 types of plot devices and in this post I will be outlining 7 main character archetypes. For this I will be using a familiar IP to help establish exactly what each characters role is in a plot, I'll be outling the character archtypes by using Star Wars characters.

The Hero
In Narrative often the protagonist and focus of the story is the hero character, who must go on a journey which involves seperation from a previous comfortable life to develop as a character, in essence grow into a new more developed character. Often the Hero is Self Sacrificing, other traits such as strength and bravery are not always needed. In the Star Wars films the character Luke Skywalker is the Hero, he must travel from his home planet to learn to become a Jedi Knight along the way he faces many trials and tribulations that will test his worth as a hero.

The Sage
More often than not The Sage is a mentor to the hero, often an old man/woman whom contains vast amounts of knowledge and is often presented as mysterious or godlike. The Sage will gift the hero with various items such as knowledge, weapons or magic. Often The Sage will be taken out of the story as a part of the test to the Hero to see if they have truly learned the skills need to proceed. In the Star Wars films the role of The Sage is taken upon by Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi, whom the Hero meets prior to the quest, Obi-Wan teaches Luke of the Jedi teachings and the force, even gifting him with a weapon, the lightsabre. Obi-Wan remains a presence through out all of Luke's journey guiding his hand and offering advice where needed.

The Herald
Often acting as the catalyst to the Hero's reason for starting the journey. The Herald can either be a character, event or a piece of information that inspires the character to set out on their journey. In the Starwars films there are a number of factors that go into the classification of The Herald, but without a doubt it's Princess Leia, it's her message in R2-D2 that inspires Luke to search for Obi-wan whom starts Luke's Quest. There are various factors in the opening of Star Wars that relate to the beginnings of Luke's Quest such as the Droids, the imperial staff that didn't destroy the escape pod, Luke's Uncle buying the droids but, ultimately it's Leia's Message that causes the start of the journey.

The Threshold Guardian
It's the role of the Threshold Guardian to present the hero with their first challenge. Often the Threshold Guardian is a henchman or much less powerful than the final antagonist, sometimes the guardian can be of nuetral alliance with no connection to any other characters and merely exist for the purpose of posing a challenge to the Hero. In Star Wars without a doubt the Threshold is the Galactic Empire, it was stormtroopers who where looking for the droids that murdered Luke's family, giving him the freedom to set out on the quest, the empire also try to prevent Luke and Obi-wan obtaining a pilot to get off Tatooine. Through out the series the Empire constantly test the Hero and his companions making it a sort of re-appearing Threshold Guardian.

The Shapeshifter
This character's role is to present uncertainty in the Hero. Often The Shapeshifter's alliance can change between the Hero's or the Villian's and when alligned with the hero it's the Shapeshifter's role to question the beliefs and teachs of the hero. The Shapeshifter can also be a friend to the Hero or even a love interest, ultimately this character's role is to offer a balance of opinion to the Hero's. In Star Wars this role is filled by Han Solo and his co-pilot Chewbacca, often Solo claims to look out for himself and even at time seem cold to the Luke's plight even noting that the ways of a Jedi are no match for "a good blaster", ultimately Solo becomes a friend and does always come through for the hero.

The Trickster
It's the role of this character to offer comedic relief to the story often to balance out an overly dramatic plot. The trickster's alliance can fall in either camps and can either be a bumbling fool or a cunning mastermind, their schemes can either result in success or failure but aslong as it happens with comedy the role of the trickster has been fufilled. In some stories the the trickster can be removed through a tragic event to denote the end of a film's light hearted nature and the beginning of a darker chapter. In Star Wars the role of the trickster is filled by R2-D2 and his companion C-3PO, often their antics are the present a light hearted nature to the film's darker themes, both characters are protrayed as intelligent with R2 being more cunning and 3PO being more bumbling, in Empire' 3PO's temporary death builds upon the darkening plot.

The Shadow
This is the Antagonist of the plot, often but not always the Shadow is the villian but it can also be a character with disagreeing veiws to the Hero. The Shadow must also be a worth opponent that will challenge the Hero's skills in a conflict that results in one being destroyed or rendered powerless. The Shadow is the negative force of the story but does not recognise themselves as the villian rather sees the narratives hero as the Villian. Undoubtable Darth Vader is the shadow in Star Wars, controlling the threshold guardian and constantly posing challenges to Luke and the other Rebels, although it is revealed that there is a greater evil above Vader, he still remains the main focus of Luke's ultimate challenge which is to bring Vader back to the good side of the force.

When it comes to writing a story often realisation and connections one can make to an other existing character can be off putting as they then feel that their work is not original but do not be discouraged as this purpose of this was to highlight that there are only so many variations so if you're writing and realise that several of your characters or themes are similar to many different sources thats fine as you've not unintentionally copied one story and it's most likely coincidence.

Writing and Well Being (Part 1)

2011-03-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

In the world of narratives there lies the potential to tell millions of stories with hosts of different characters right? Unfortunately not, variation can only do so much to a concept and in base terms there are only really seven basic plots with interchanable characters roles. This is not to say that all stories are the same but to more point out that if you as a creative feel like your stories has already been written it probably has but it's what you as a creative can bring to it that makes it unique. Below I'm going to outline these story achetypes along with examples of character achetypes.

First there's:

The Quest
This story type revolves around the central protagonist striving to meet and over come various obstacles to reach an all important goal, often these obstacles are either to test the protagonist's worthiness of the goal or are set up by an antagonist in order to stop the protagonist from reaching the goal. Classic Example: Lord of The Rings.

Voyage and return
Similar to The Quest, this plot has the protagonist either travel or transported (against their will) to another world/land etc and find their way back home. Along the way the character will learn new skills that they would never have learned in their home environment ultimately resulting in a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them. Classic Example: Wizard of Oz.

Rebirth
This story type is often used for classic stories about redemption. Perhaps a hero has been sullied or let down those he was meant to protect, the rebirth is the story of him regaining the trust and love he once had or learning something new altogether resulting in development of the character. More often it's revealed that the character is being held back by something in their own psyche. Classic Example: A Christmas Carol

Comedy
Often this story type is used in conjuction with others in modern day terms to add good feeling effect to a story. Previously it was used where in a comedy revolves around characters being thrown into confusion and bewilderment where the only resolution comes once these two aspects reach their maximium level. Much of the plot comes from escalated lie for the sake of hilarity and the true moment of comedy is actually tradgey when it all falls apart. Classic Example: Fraiser.

Tragedy
A tragedy often focuses around a character whom seemingly has everything but through their actions ultimately causes their own downfall. This is done to create a connection to the audience in which they should feel empathy for the character. Like comedy, tragedy is often used as a sub plot or part of a story of rebirth in where the character can only learn something once he's lost everything. Classic Example: MacBeth.

Over Coming the Monster
This plot is pretty much self explanetory, in which the hero must over come and defeat and evil be it a creature or person due to it causing destruction or spreading fear across the land. Often this is used with the quest plot where in a hero must over come tests or prepare themselves for the final confrontation with the evil, often there will be atleast 1 confrontation that the hero must face before finally defeating it. Classic Example: Jaws.

Rags to Riches
Again this is fairly straight forward in that the protagonist starts of in a position of nothingness and suddenly attains greatness either by fame or wealth. Often this is taken away so that the hero may show the viewers that he is worthy of this greatness, sometime this involves vanquishing a foe. Classic Example: Aladdin.

When looking over these several plot types you can easily think of any film, book or videogame that utilises one or more of these plots. Oftewn the variation comes from using a mix of subplots and dowing minor variations on the situations but the base concept is often the same.

In the next post I'll be looking at character archetypes!

The Uncanny Valley

2011-03-28T16:21:00.001-07:00

The Uncanny: "A concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange."

When defining what exactly "The Uncanny" is, at times it can be quite difficult as one is trying to explain the definition of something extraordinary, something that is in relation to our world and reality but at the same time either bends or breaks the rules of which outline our existence in the universe. This can be anything from defying gravity to merely having a unique quality that is not found in other objects or beings, the uncanny is often found in works of fiction where reality can be bent at the author's whim. Great examples of the uncanny in fiction are any kind of superhero comic or the works of H.P. Lovecraft. To further define what exactly can be classed as the uncanny I have turned to a certain passage by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud.

The first thing that Freud talks about is that the uncanny is generally perceived as an observation and opinion based upon that observation, these opinions are then compared to other opinions of sights seen for matching qualities, if a quality does not match with other familiar traits this can create the concept of the uncanny. To help strengthen this theory Freud brings up a quote from Jentsch which can further outline what can be defined as uncanny, "Doubts whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might not be in fact animate". This short quote can clearly be used to in the age old question found in many science fiction narratives, whether a robot (or a doll) can be classified as being "alive". This is due to the fact that they share similar traits with humans yet they are not human, creating a likeness but not a replica of a living, animate being. Freud then goes on to say that using the human form as a basis is a one of if not the most successful method of creating a sense of the uncanny.

Freud carrys on to define psychological side of the uncanny, what makes it appear that way in our minds, using the narrative Nachtstrucken as a point of reference to translate his theory. Nachtstrucken features the story of 'The Sand-Man' an entity that claims the eyes of children who will not sleep. The story features a young boy by the name of Nathaniel whom seeks out to either prove or disprove the Sand-Man's existence in his own mind this is due to the fact the entity is never actually revealed to be fictional or no within the narrative leaving room for ambiguity. What it is important to know that is the narrative seems to be based within a reality very similar to our own in that when reading this we expect this narrative to follow the rules of our universe, with the shared traits in realities. The boy was determined to find out the Sand-Man's appearance and whilst in hiding he observes a character of which he has a distaste for, Nathaniel then projects his preconceptions of the dreaded Sand-Man on to this character for their exclamation of "Eyes here!" this event would be one to stay with the young child for his life.

This event ultimately became the demise of poor Nathaniel as it drove him to madness due to the fear he felt for the Sand-Man, through out the story it's never made clear if the Sand-Man exists or not and that's what makes it uncanny. Freud continues his analisation noting that the concept of pyhsically being robbed of not just one's eyesight but of one's actual eyes is something quite extraordinary and something that would not happen in this reality. Freud also notes on the ambiguity or the narrations rules and boundaries in relation to the existence of the Sand-Man character comparing it to narratives of Shakespeare wherein these rules are layed out giving a chance to suspend belief to allow for the existence of uncanny beings. Freud then goes on to suggest that some events within the story can appear meaningless until the character of the Sand-Man is replaced with that of the Nathaniel's father and begins to interchange the concept of fears of losing the eye to that of castration and punishment.

It is here when Freud stops focusing on the uncanny and focuses more on the possible hidden messages within the narrative, nevertheless from the excerpt Freud has presented I have gained a slightly better understanding of what the Uncanny is and through knowing this it will allow me to develop my own narratives which can be believable with fantastic elements.

Within the media the theme of the uncanny is one that is very strong especially in the entertainment industries which focuses on presenting both informative features and fictional ones. The uncanny is often a staple element within the fictional features found in entertainment to help make the story more fantastical and interesting to the viewer, there are also many aspects to what we can label as "The Uncanny" as there are many different genres of entertainment but each one can have it's own version of the uncanny. One example is that within comic books, especially superhero based ones where the concept of people who can fly and are stronger than the strongest man on earth is something that can be viewed as uncanny, then there are drama shows such as Coronation Street where things happen which are similar to our own but a lot more dramatic it could not be real with events such as murder and overly complex family fights, even these mundane things can be defined as uncanny.

That's just some of the examples of what can be classed as the uncanny within media but it's more of looking at the uncanny as an adjective. What about the Uncanny as a feeling, a sense of aesthetics? A good example of this would be any of the works of Jan Svankmajer, a film maker who is known to incorporate stop motion within his works but the end results is something that doesn't seem quite right a perfect example would be his work Alice in which the opening scene we see the White Rabbit come to life and this is done through the wonders of stop-motion animation. The way it moves is slightly jerky and unnatural but nonetheless it still mimics movement and this relation to reality with a distorted spin is what makes it Uncanny.

Another example of this type of stop-motion used to create the sense of "Uncanniness" is within the Horror genre film "Ju-on: The Grudge" in which a ghost of a women moves in a very discorntorted manner whilst coming down stairs using both her hands and her feet. It's this type of movement that creates the unerving feeling outlined by Frued in his theory of what the representation of the Uncanny is.

There are many ways the uncanny can be represented within media ranging from film to television, literature and even videogames, but here are just so many but I can garentee where there is fiction there will be an element of the uncanny waiting to be found.

Communication Theory (Part 2)

2011-03-28T15:17:00.001-07:00

Following from the previous post I'll be looking at more forms of communication.

Rhetoric is a form of Constitutive communication in which the transmitted interacts with the audience, presenting them the information through some variety of media (images, film, text). Often this type of communication is used for propaganda but is limited by the fact that it can only be learned through practice and often is valid only in it's native culture and is ambiguous in context to begin with. Rhetoric has the power to change how a viewer might perceive signs as image without context are meaningless but if you apply context to them (often accompanying text) they can have power over the viewer. Rhetoric is sustained by communication as a social activity and in turn helps individuals dominate their opinion other others.

Socio-Psycological is a form of Constitutive communication in which the original sender of information or a message then interprets the receiver's opinion and how that resulting opinion effects the understanding of the message. This is basically understanding how people understand different forms of communication, obviously a person from a different culture may interpret a sign from another culture differently from how the natives would. This also goes for the English language in that often two words are combined to take on a new meaning such as Frost (thin layer of ice caused by condensation and cold weather) and Anti (opposite) are combined to make Anti-Frost which is a product to get rid of frost.

Socio-Cultural is a Constitutive form of communication in that is a definition of a person in terms of their cultural background, this does have it's limitations in that negative stereotypes can be built upon this such as all Asain people are bad drivers or all British people drink tea (if they're not down the pub having fights). Socio-Cultural communications the ability to recognise someone by their culture and looks at how people from each culture group interact and designate roles in their own society. This can have limitations in communication as something that is acceptable in one culture might offend another, which is why an understanding of one and other's is vital to learning to live in harmony of one another...or at least accepting there will be differences.

Critical Communication also falls under the Constitutive category of communication. This tradition is similar to a mixture of both philosophy and social science and is often used to uncover hidden truths about societies based on activity and behaviour. This form is most commonly used by the media to convey may types of information often in a platonic/neutral way but to also subliminally highlight key issues and is constantly questioning the validity of the information and the authority of who gave it. Very similar to a critical analyse a university student might do to uncover hidden meanings in an image or piece of text. This form does have it's limitations as sometimes it presents the opinion of the person or group analysing the subject matter/information rather than a complete neutral opinion.

Each tradition of communication has it's pros and cons and all are used by people, even when they don't consciously realise it and often with use more than one at a time to back up the flaws that other processes have. Along with body language, script and speech there are many ways in which people interact and communicate with each other for a variety of purposes but whats most important is the way that we do it. Perhaps in time research will discover new ways in which we interact with each other.

Communication Theory (Part 1)

2011-03-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

"Who says what to Whom in what channel with what effect?"

In communication there are 7 traditions that are split up into two variations, 6 of which fall under Constitutive, others of which comes under Transmissional.

Transmissional forms of communication is the model of sending and recieving information from one source to another but it also has limitations in that theres a gap between the two points of which the information travels and due to people interpritating information differently from one another the message/information could be misread.

Constitutive forms of communication is the model of production and reproduction of shared meaning. These models can have limitations in that gaps can occur in the understanding process due to different cultures or the ability of people be able to determine authentic communication between people.

The first of the seven traditions is Cybernetic, which is a Transmissional method of communication. The most common example of this communication form is the basic concept of a telephone where in the gap occurs between the transmitter and reciever of the information. Observation is made by the reciever and is their interpritation of the imformation or message.

Semiotics is a Constitutive method of communication that predominately uses signs to communicate a message. It's also created by us to help in the decifering of complex codes. It can also be used to analyse images and that over time various signs that people have learned can be put to use in new images to help figure out it's meaning. A common example is road signs which use a combination of the shape of the sign and the image on the sign to convey a complete message such as a red triangle and a black thunderbolt means "beware! electricity". Semiotics does have it's limitations in that the priority of structure over usage means that it may not always be recognised due to the nature of ever evolving communication.

Phenomenological Communication falls under the Constitutive method. This is learning information through the act of doing, being the most basic form of communicating information as it is learned through mimicing. Experiences shape a human's knowledge and simple things such as communication is developed through this process, lack of authentic human relationships could be percieved as a failure learning how to communicate properly with other people. The limitations that come with this is that somethings can't be learned from experience such as knowing falling from great heights can kill you, which is learned through the act of seeing rather than doing.

Next I'll be looking at the remaining 4 traditions in communication theory!

Media is The Massage

2011-03-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

'The Medium is the Massage' is a book by Marshall McCluhan and Quinten Fiore, first published in 167 by Peguin books, it's reveared as the first book that made people fully understand the benefits of technological advancements in all aspects of media, from books to film. In fact to drive home the potential of print and the advancements in printing technology 'The Medium is the Massage' features a very unique and creative layout, this not only shows the reader examples of ways print has developed but ingrained it onto their minds. Ironically it was a printing error of the word 'message' that ultimately gave the book it's slightly odd title.

The book outlines various themes such as the learnings of society were recieve as we mature from child to adulthood, noting that technological advances have effects on people and their societies. It notes that social and cultural environments are affected by the technological advancements and often the most common form of anxieties are created by trying to complete the tasks of today with yesterdays tools (i.e. computers, software) and that our time on the earth has been a constant string of achievements of development and crossing barriers ultimately improving ourselfs or technologies.

The mere existance of this book as surely it could become as obsolete as the technologies it talks about. Medium is the Masaage is a look at our time with media students who focus m0re on the method rather than the concept and how older people ultimately can become dependant on the technologies of today where as younger generations would be able to adapt without it as they've constantly been surrounded by it.

The book is seperated into chapters below I'll outline the main features of each chapter;

You:

What has made you who you are?
Is there a lack of privacy in a world were everything is recorded?
"You are not a name but, a number"

This chapter outlines themes of personal development and survielance, questioning if this has helped shape people into being obediant as if their every move is being watched, they can get caught.

Family:

Family has widened
You're influced by the World around you
"All the World is a sage", a soure of information

This chapter keeps with the theme of personal growth citing that with ever widening networks there are more influences that go in to the development of an adult. Today this is very true with the internet in developed cultures being widely availible information and connections can be attained more easily than ever.

Neighbourhood:

Electronic reach widens, creating new boundries
You can't clock off.

In the terms of 'unable to clock off', with the advent of mobile phones it has become possible that a person can be contacted at any point and recently it was revealed that last year UK citizens have lost a total of £23 Million in unpaid (around £4650 each), all due to being able to be contacted directly, ofcourse most don't mind as it's only maybe an hour hear of work related advice there or even work brought home but it still proves the point of not being able to truly clock off.

Education:

Home and Classroom have different paces
Child was previously merged into the adult world
Child now lives in two different worlds
Different paces = ADHD
Growing up is a child's job

In the education chapter the author states that where as there was no education system a child was iducted into the adults world as soon as they could work, but today because of classroom and education a child has to deal with the two different paces of the different social worlds, it's suggested that this leads to cases of ADHD, where learning is a slow process it might not be able to hold the attention of pupils as they also live in a world with faster paced objects such as television.

Your Job:

Fragmentation of Work
Blend into more rules and responsibilites
Machines are taking over.

This chapter deals with the work place and how people today have to constantly revise their wiring to conform to the rules and responsibilities of a demanding job, that in the end may be taken over by machines anyways. Also drawing referance to the fact that work has become so fragmented in the process for a final product that perhaps any job could be considered a factory assembly line.

Goverment:

Media has more control than goverment
Media can be the medium to interact with the goverment

Here the author is drawing reference to how when a news story is released it can actually sway peoples opinions on the goverment, this can result in people voting for different political parties ultimately it's the media who decided who is in charge.

The book contiues to highlight that all media is an extention of one's body using examples such as clothes are the extention of the skin and electric circuitry is an extention of the nervesystem, the author also cites that the dominant organ before the alphabet was the ear and that since then cultures and histories have been set by alphabets. Stating that writing is the beginnings of culture and civilisation, McCluhan notes that because of writing we can keep record that ultimately fixes problems such as disputes.

"Slower Communication is irrelevant, information is constatly being compiled upon."

In short this book deals with the theme that Technology and people's developing mind ultimately advances cultures to the next step and just by looking at one person's life you can define changes that have happened along the way all thanks to technology.

Summary of What I've learned about so far

2011-03-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

In Contextual Studies, I've learned a fair bit since starting the course. I've learned about moving type and it's history and importance to the modern world in how that it's transcended it's roots from being a tool to educate and inform into a whole new entity in which that it takes on elements of art and graphic design to not only communicate information but to also communicate a feeling or style. This includes the ways in which it can be utilised in film to further convey the emotion or tone the artist wants the audience to feel.

From there I looked at cinema as a door and how in film whilst directors try to replicate film it's the controlled elements that make it art. I also addressed the subject of objectification of not only women but actors in film coming to the conclusion that in film everything needs to be objectified for positive or for negative portrayls as it's this objectification that helps the audience define the reality of the film from their own, my personal opinion on this matter was re-enforced by the excerpt I analysed from 'Film Theory' by Thoams Elsaesser and Maltie Hagener as by interpritng their text I came to the conclusion part of film is that controlled aspect and in that sense the artist creating the film must see all componenets as objects that are trying to replicate life with out duplicating it, it is also up to the artist to give his own interpritation of life in a film for audiences to experience.

I also anaylsed the opening two and a half minutes to the 2000 film 'American Psycho' in which I outlined the possible emotions and messages director Mary Harron was trying to convey to the audience, noting on the sutble aspects that go into a film and how each one could be considered a deliberate addition to the layers of information in the film. I also analysed several still images from film and video games to see the artist's intentions and expressionate interpritations of reality including noting directional choices and what effect they may have on the viewer.

Finally I looked at the subject of the embodied mind and how it's that aspect of learning that has helped people learn to make opinions and see the expression in any place be it man made or a natural occurance, which backs up the process of the opinions I made in the section of "Cinema as a Door". It also taught me about the importance the embodied mind plays in terms of allowing us to communicate to each other through the act of facial experssions and body language, which will bring me onto the next part of contextual studies; Communication Theory.

The Embodied Mind

2011-03-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

The process of the embodied mind is closely linked that that of perception and understanding of body movement as well as communication through movement. Often when communication is talked about people forget subtle things such as one's facial expression and the way they hold their body can also communicate things generally a range of emotions.

This process starts off as early development when we're children in that were learn to recognise the human face in it's most basic elements, the simplest being 3 dots, two for the eyes one for the nose. From their we learn the expressions that a face can convey this helps us to relate to one another and understand more clearly the tone of which information is being given to us, it's essentially the process of being able to read the body language of a person.

This also helps us considerably when it comes to looking at art as our mind will constantly be looking from elements that marry up to the image in our mind of a face and the various expressions that it can make.

This also goes for movement, if something is moving quickly or eratically it could give the impression to the viewer that it is excitable or dangerous. This can be applied to anything that has movement ranging from moving text to body language to moving images, the human mind can automatically build up an opinion of the subject matter and match it with an expression.

In short the Embodied mind is the process of our minds taking an object that we've seen and attaching an expression and/or personality to it based on the elements the object has such as colour, aesthetic and movement. It's also part of the process in how we make opinions and assumptions about people and objects, without it we wouldn't have art or expression, the embodied mind is an important part of what defines a person as an individual entity from the masses of other people.

Analysis of 'Film Theory' Excerpt

2011-03-24T14:47:00.001-07:00

In this analysis, I will be looking at chapter 1, 'Cinema as a Window and Frame', page 22 of 'Film Theory'. I will be outlining the themes and general messages that the Authors, Thoams Elsaesser and Maltie Hagener were trying to convey to the reader.

In the first paragraph the Authors write;

"It is the viewer's aptitude of creating a Gestalt (to assemble a number of disconnected sense impressions into a whole that is larger than the sum of it's parts) that endows film with the status of art."

I view this as part of the reason that film can be made into art is that a viewer can only see severval unrealted things in a film and draw conclusions as to their purpose within the film bringing them together to essentially create a individual and unique perspective in a scene. Much like with paintings, when critics analyse paintings they'll try bring together as many elements in a piece and explain how that the placements of that element or method of it's execution relate to the feeling of a piece. Thus making film comparable to art as each scene in a film is designed to envoke a feeling but often things are placed as props but people could develop their own meanings to the reasons why props are placed as they are or the way a scene is shot.

From there the Authors elabourate on this;

"Put differently: the cognitive act of combining disparate data and sensations from within a shared frame is fundamental premise for our understanding of film."

Here the auhtors are trying to highlight as well as these disconnected aspect being a part of the reason film can be considered art, they're also trying convey that it is this process of joining these componenets to make aspects of the film more than what could have been intended by the Director or writer part of the experience of watching a film. That much like books and music it is a person personal perspective and opinion of scenes and choice made in their construction that makes the experience of viewing a film and understanding the very nature of what a film is.

Next the Authors talk about "The Frame" and it's importance to watching a film;

"Here the frame is more a perceptual constraint and cognitive task then a transparent plane giving access to the world."

Here they draw attention to the frame, the very nature of cinema in that everything the viewer sees occurs in a rectangle field of vision in which they cannot see around in. It focuses their attention on what is happening in a precise spot in the fictional world that the film is taking place. They cannot leave the room that the characters are in and explore whats happening elsewhere, the viewer is confined to the event happening before then. They make the comparison to a real window as when you look at the window in your bedroom you can go out into the world you see, feel it's breeze and hear it's sounds where as in film you cannot.

The next issue to be addressed is the authenticity of films;

"If film were to affect the spectator in the same way as a complete sensory encounter with the world, i.e. spatial, colourful and acoustic, then it could not be distinguished from reality itself and would amount to no more than it's mechanical double."

This is the authors going more indepth into what distinguishes a film from the real world, essentially saying that if a film could mimic the real world whilst telling the story of the character but include things such as the ability for a viewer to move around the realm in which the film is taking place it would be no different to everyday life where a person can sit and watch the stories of people unfold. It's the aspects that are taken away from real life that makes a film what it is, the forced camera angles, swelling soundtracks, this is all part of the magic of the film and espacism, if film was identical to real life noone would be interested and it wouldn't be able to amount to art. Art can be considered an expressionate imitation of life, but if it's a duplicate there no personal expression in there.

The Authors explore deeper into this theme;

"Film as art depends on the creative intervention of an artist, with mechanical duplication serving merely as it's means of production."

Once again they return to the theme of art as film, noting that it's the guiding hand of an artist/director that seperates it from real life. They refer to the "mechanical duplication" as the equpiment used in filming, the cameras, the special effect, the sound management but al of this is guided by the director/producer/artist who has a desired vision of how his take on a story should be done. This point is doubley valid if the setting for the film is contemporary with no fantastical elements that do not belong in our reality (i.e. dragons, spaceships etc). Much like in christianity where an all powerful god has control over the purpose of everything in the world, the artist has control of everything that will happen in his world, when viewers watch nothing has happened by chance but it is all premedatated and each element has it's purpose, without this intervention it wouldn't be art.

The authors begin to draw referance to Rudolf Arheim and the early days of film, citing that the less components that emulate our reality the more artistic the work is;

"The lack and absence (of colour, of naturalistic sound, of three-dimensionality) that posed the artistic challenge of the new Medium...
...This new technological addition was over whelmingly used in a naturalistic way (as it was win the "talkies"), it moved film merely toward a reproduction of reality."

In this section they're reciting the views of Arheim, in that the artists viewed the constraints of filming at the time to add to the challenge of creating art from the work, where as the technological advancements were doing a diservice to the medium of film as an art form. As mentioned previously some view the process of art as imitation of life with an expressionate intervention from the artist. Part of the challenge of creating films in the early days of the medium was getting it to replicate life without duplicating, Arheim clearly felt that with each advancement replication would become less important as duplication was becoming easier, taking away artistic merit from the process of making a film.

The Authors continue to look at Arheim's veiws on technological advancements in film;

"In his view, sound film was the result of an unacceptable compromise between two incompatible art forms (silent film and radio drama)."

Arhein clearly felt that by melding the two together you get something that is too close to a duplication, perhaps too upset at technological advancements Arheim felt that they only way one or the other could reach artistic merit is if one of the two mediums were lacking in certain elements that seperated them from duplication of reality (i.e. radio has no image so it must use sound effects and lengthy description from the players to build the image in peoples minds, where as film was the opposite). It is possible though unlikely this was the way Arheim felt and could not realise that it's the mere act of directing and presentation of a fil that seperates it from life and reality.

The final quote I'll analyse is this;

"The Frame as an element of abstraction from everyday reality."

This relates back to a previous analysis, here they're highlighting that it is the existence of the frame that seperates it from our reality, it is a window from which we can only see a forced angle from. We cannot pass through or interact, we cannot warm characters of their impending demises nor assist them in times of peril. We can only sit and watch, the barrier stops us from interfering with the artist's world but it also stops the artist's world from reaching out and physically hurting us, instead it can only reach us on an emotional level and it is that which seperates film from reality, it is the artist's choice of content and the way it is presented to envoke an emotion in us. When watching a film we can not be physically touched but emtionally moved and it is the power of an emotional movement that merits a film as art.

Roles within the Game Industry (part 3)

2011-03-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

Finally I'll be looking at the remaining roles that go into the overall process of the game industry and the order of command that goes with it.

Level Designer
The level designer is a sort of mix of a programmer and artist, as they construct the challenges and environments for players to face. They'll often use a set of tools created by programmers but apply their own script to the environment to achieve the desired vision. The challenges that level editors create include various things such as missions or goals for the players to strive for. Often they work with semi completed art work to first get the general layout of the environment they want to create.

Sound Engineers
These are the people in charge of creating the sounds that will be featured in a game. Any audio is over seen by the sound engineer, this includes composing for background music, sound effects and voice acting. Their job is fairly simple in that they create the sounds the designer wants, as with other departments there will be a head sound engineer who will work closely with the designer to get the best sounds that match the designer's vision. Sometimes Composers are outsourced.

Testers
Game testers are the one who play and analyse the game for any faults that might come up during gameplay, they also check that the game meets the desired vision of the designer. This often requires a good knowledge of computer design and competence in analytical skills. Often this process can be expensive so it's often completed at the end stages of the game design process.

With the roles defined it's time to outline the order in which things work. At the top will be the publisher, who are in charge of the producers who oversee the complete project, below them will be the designers, next programmers as they bring together all the aspects of the game and put them together, below the programmers will be the Artists, Level Designers and Sound engineers. Resulting in the whole process looking a little something like this:

Publisher>Producer>Designer>Programmer>Artists, Level Designers, Sound Engineers.

You'll notice how I haven't included the Testers, this is because the tester whilst are a part of the game design process don't contribute to the creative process in the same way. Testers act more like debuggers and quality checkers to make sure the game is proceeding at the desired level of quality.

After this look at the roles in game design companies I've certainly more enlightened about the components and job oppertunities in the industry as well as potentially finding my prefered role should I enter the employment of a geames studio.

Roles within the Game Industry (Part 2)

2011-03-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

Previously I looked at the more beurocratic side of the game development process, this time round I'll be looking at the deep down and gritty members of the creative process.

Designer
The designer has to role of developing the gameplay aspects that will be in the final game. This includes what the objective of the game is and how it should be played. Designers also have to concieve the story (if there is one), decide what the contents of the product will be (eg. will there be unlockable levels and features). Often there will be seperate designers for different aspects of the game in larger projects. In short Game designers decide what the game is going to consist of, mechanics, which characters are to be in it and features.

Artists
Artists are the creators of the world the designer wants to create. Artist refers to both 2D and 3D art covering all types of visual work created, from concept art to 3D Models, often the art department will be seperated into groups such as 2D artist who will focus on conceptualising an idea and 3D Artists who will then take that idea and create in in three-dimensions to be used in the game. Often there will be an art director to over see the work to make sure that it follows the vision of the designer. Whilst the designers think up the ideas it's the artists who give those ideas a face.

Programmers
Programmers are the people who essentially put all the elements of a game together, they are the ones who bring the non visual elements of the game to life such as physics, AI, scripting, online capabilities and gameplay method. Much like the other departments there will be atleast one lead programmer who oversees the small aspects of this section of game design process. In short the Programmers are the assemble line workers of the overall process, making sure that each different element will work with each other and that the gameplay and user interfaces work well together.

Next I'll be looking at the final set of key roles in game making process.

Roles within the Game Industry (Part 1)

2011-03-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Much with any industry there multiple roles that one can take within the Video Game Industry in this series of blog entries I'm going to analyse those roles.

Over the years the video game industry has grown to the point in which that it's similar to the film industry with multi-million budgets for some games and dozens upon dozens of people working on one game at any given time. I'll be looking at each role in each sector.

Producers

In video game development there are two kinds of producters and internal and external one. The internal producer manages the resources such as schedule, staff and report progress, whilst the external producer (often hired by the publisher of the game) oversees aspects such as overall progress and the budget. Their overall resposibilties invole PR, negotiations, connections between staff and stakes holders, beta test management and localisation.

Publisher

A publisher in the terms of video games is very much the same as for books or films, it's their duty to manufactue the product, complete market research, develop a marketing campaign for the product and handle all aspects of advertising. Often the Publishers are the one who finance a video game's production, to protect their investments they hire Producers to keep an eye on the progress on the product. Most video games are created by an external game developer but some are developed by the publisher themselves, often they are paid by the publisher with advances on roaylities.

These two components are critical to the process of making a game as without the publishers there would be no funding in the game (unless dev' members put up the cash themselves) or marketing for a game and without producers the time management would be impossible to keep track of. Whilst these are the less creative side of the business they're still just as important to the overall process as the actual developers making the game.

Next I'll be looking at the down and dirty members of the game development process.

TIGA: Representing the Games Industry

2011-03-24T08:17:00.001-07:00

Once you have a job in the Games Industry in the UK it's probably a good idea to sign up for membership to TIGA.

TIGA is basically a union for games designers in the UK, the organisation looks out for memebrs by being a political representative of the games industry, generate media coverage and developing services to enhance competiton between members to create the best games they can. This allows members to have a voice in the political and media world and that members will recieve the proper benefits such as redution of costs and improved commercial oppertunities, TIGA also make sure that views of game developers are articulated properly to the media.

By being a TIGA member there are also benefits such as assitance in seeking a job via the job board or job swap to make the process of getting employed easier, theres also support for those wanting to exhibit their work overseas at the various expos that take place across the world. There's also discount on services such as motion capturing, PR, legal and accountancy services. Along with newsletters and networking events theres really a whole host of benefits anyone coming out of univeristy can reap from joining.

It seems that TIGA is there to look out for both larger and small game developer's interest in the world, if anything it's good to join to have a union to fall back upon if anything should go wrong or you suffer indecent treatment at the hands of one employer. It's also good to be apart of a union to keep up on the latest information about your profession and the way the goverment will treat it, be it an increase in taxes or no pension funding, TIGA seems ready to fight for Game Developers rights in the UK.

Researching a Game Company

2011-03-24T07:19:00.001-07:00

Previously I talked about getting a job in the games industry and the suggestions for what to do when applying for jobs, these suggestions were also backed up by an article by Michael Stibbes whom worked in a professional games company for sometime.

Using Rockstar Game's website as an example I'm going to give an analysis of what the website tells me about the company.

The front page features a whole host of different information including manyfeatures such as videos and downloads that serves as promotions for already released and up-coming games. This first of all informes the veiwers of what games the company is currently making, in rockstars case they're heavily promoting their upcoming game "L.A. Noire", but are also promoting new previous releases such as "Red Dead Redemption", the games section also tells me the type of games Rockstar release, generally aimed at older audiences their games often feature a third person perspective and expolartion. Already I've learned alot about the games the company makes.

The next section to look at is their news section, titled "News Wire". Here the company posts news relating to itself or any recommendations that is has. This again is used as a promtional tool but theres still much to learn from it. Firstly they've posted various Previews and opinions from various press magazines and websites, they also use the "News Wire" to announce competitions such as a competition titled "The Los Angeles Noire Weekend Sweepstakes", in which fans can enter to win various prizes such as a trip to Los Angeles and a unique hands on experience with the game before anyone else. They also release updates on the games such as screen shots and news of extra features coming via download and even organised online events held by the company, the "News Wire" also features a twitter feed. This informs me that Rockstar Games are keen to keep people updated in their work and are professionals at promotion, they're also take a hands-on approache to consumers by offering these organised online events.

The next point of interest of the website is titled "Social Club". This serves as a community site for fans and players of rockstar games to connect with eachother, the site also features additional features for games such as online leaderboards and mini-games, along with this theres also a message board and a page listing all the Multiplayer Events that Rockstar will be hosting for members. It also holds a news section that realtes specifically to the the rockstar community such as "Social Club" exculsive competitions.
This tells me that the company care about their audience and fans and what to keep them engaged in their products, the inclusion of a community site complete with message board also means that they can get feedback from the fans and not just reviews from websites/magazines.

Finally their Merchandise section takes me to the shop where in the company sells products ranging from games to t-shirts but also limited edition products such as "Red Dead Redemption" soap, playing cards etc.

This shows me that they don't just focus on advertising for promotion but also specially made products too, it also shows that that if their fans wish they can easily find a t-shirt or similar product to celebrate one of Rockstar Game's Products. The inclusion of a shop site informs me that the company is large enough to sustain something as time consuming as retail, this leads to the conclusion that if I were to apply for a job I would be joining a successful team.

Just by spending 30 minutes researching Rockstar's website I've learned about their upcoming releases and the types of games they make, their promotional methods, new products being released in the form of Downloadable content, their involvement with the consumers and the extend at which they get involved and their store. All of this information would prove to be extremely handy when it comes to an interview and any questions they would ask me about themselves. This also informs me of the type of company I'll be applying for. From this mere 30 mins of research I'm already more prepared for an interview should I have one.

The Ins & Outs of Parody

2011-03-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

In the previous post I looked at the case of The Walt Disney Company vs The Air Pirates. During the Court case between the two the Air Pirates claimed that their work that was derived from the Disney Characters was work done in Parody. This prompted me to take a further look into Parody to avoid any wasted lawsuits against people when parodying work that I have created that could be mis-interpreted as copyright infringement.

Parody is defined as "contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or make fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation." Parody happens across all forms of entertainment but surely by using an idea that wasn't originally under ownership of the new creative theres got to be some legal fluff surrounding it.

In the United States of America, parody is considered work derived from a previous source but claims for owners can be dismissed under the Fair Use doctrine which allows limited use of copyrighted material without authorisation from the rights holder under the basis that the parody fell under the the proper definition.

If I was to create a comic where in a teenager is bitten by a radioactive ant to become a super hero and show him struggling with being a teenager and a super hero, this would not be under the definition of Parody as I've taken elements from one preoperty and just switch a few details, essentially ripping off a previous idea. If I was to create a comic in where a Spider was bitten by a radioactive shy, bookish human thus gaining the proportionate abilities of a teenage nerd and then chronicle it's experience as it deal with these terrible new powers, this would fall under the definition of Parody as it it's clearly taking some elements of the original and changing the perspective around, adding comedic and even more fantastical elements to which it has become something else that draws it's origins from a different piece of work.

In the UK the use of Parody is much harder to acquire. Citing that one must recieve permission from the original copyright holder before the Parody is performed, although there are exceptions such as;

Part of the underlying work is not 'substantial'.
The use of the underlying work falls within the fair dealing exception for "criticism, review and news reporting".
Enforcement of copyright is contrary to the public interest.

The easiest of these to appeal towards is making sure that the underlying work is not substantial. In my previous example since I used the origins of spider-man and twisted the basic concept to create a new character in a teenage nerd powered spider, the original work shouldn't be classed as substantial (although this could be up for debate due to conflicting opinions, such as the courtcase of Airpirates vs Disney).

It seems that when it comes to parody there are very fine line between what the law deems as okay and whats not okay, with the most complicated part being the definition of the amount of worked used and if you have contributed anything new to it to make it different from the original. The best example of mainstream Parody would most likely be the Scary Movie series of films which has built up a franchise of parodying various horror movies for the sake of make a new comedy movie from those pastiches. If you ever find your work being copied always hold your fire to make sure that it's not a parody so that you don't waste money chasing the wrong guys.

Mickey Mouse and the Air Pirates

2011-03-24T03:56:00.000-07:00

In 1970 Several cartoonist mets at the Sky River Rock Concert & Lighter than Air Fair in Washington State. These Cartoonists consisted of Robert London, Dan O'Neill, Gary Hallgren, Ted Richards and Sherry Flenniken, the trouble all started when O'neill's lawyer proclaimed that the copyright on Mickey Mouse had lapsed resulting in the cartoonist suggesting that the group gain control of the Disney Ips by creating their own versions of them.

Unfortunately none of this was true as Disney had renewed it's copyright on Steamboat Willie (the first Mickey Cartoon) in 1956 to make it last until 1986. The group took on the name "Air Pirates" for any work that they complete together, Ted Richards claimed that Walt Disney was nothing but a hack and by copyrighting his work he was preventing truly great artists contribute and improve upon his work. Being part of the Underground comic scene the brains behind the group wanted to run their publishing more like a business with monthly release schedules claiming that using Disney's IP justified this, in the end over 20,000 copies of the first two issues of "Air Pirates Funnies" were published. In the comics the cartoonists featured the lovable characters performing acts of which were uncharacteristic such as swearing, smuggling drugs and various sexual acts with each other. Fortunately The Disney Company never noticed, unfortunately the Air Pirates wanted to be noticed.

Eventually their work reach the Disney Execs and on October 21 1971 Disney Productions filed suit against the Air Pirates. Disney's case was straightforward, the Air Pirates had used copyrighted characters without permission and that they had violated their trademarks by replicating them to misguide consumers into think it's a Disney authorised product and that by showing sexual and criminal acts being performed by the characters also damages the brand that Disney has built up over the years.

Unfortunately the Pirates claimed that the work was produced in the tradition of Parody and Satire and that no consumer would mistake their portray of characters like Mickey for the ones created by Walt Disney. They also argued that since Disney has become a symbol of American Culture they were in every right to add their own ideas as it would transform the characters into a different expression of an artist, something that is outside of the company's copyright.

Subsequently the Air Pirates were charged with $20,000+ is damages and fees to be paid to Disney, but it didn't end there. O'Neill appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1979 but was refused to a hearing, at a yet another hearing the Disney company demanded that O'Neill be prosecuted as a criminal but the Judge refused, over the course of 8 years the Air Pirates had cost The Disney Company $2 million in costs trying to pursue the group and in the end all they had to show for it was a written piece of paper from O'Neill promising that he would never draw Mickey Mouse again.

This is a rare case in which Disney had become so large and pivotal to culture that it had transended the usual means of copyright law as it is now considered as much as a part of american culture as Thanks Giving Day. This also shows an example of what can happen when copyright is breached or an IP is used in a way that the creator did not intend, the ins and outs of trials and the stress that go along with it. It's unlikely that everyone's work will reach a level of fame such as the Disney Toons but it's an important part of copyright history as the Airpirates essentially got nothing more than a slap on the wrist and a "now don't do it it again."

The Power of Facebook

2011-03-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

Or how it can ruin your opportunities at getting a job. Facebook is a great place for friends, not so much for work, on the social networking website you can post pictures of yourself having fun, type your latest feelings about a movie you saw but be careful at what you're posting. If you plan on adding members from work or even your boss be cautious as already there have been many tales of people posting updates such as "Omfg today was so long and dull, my boss just kep giving me more and more to do, I hate him!" and resulting in their employers firing them pretty much the next day as when you work for a company you represent them in every way.

Don't do what teenage Kimberly Swann (pictured) did, in which she posted comments over a week complaining of the task she was recieving to which she was called into her Employers officed and fired on the spot with a written explanation of the reason for her termination from employment. The letter read:

'Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work, we end your employment with Ivell Marketing & Logistics with immediate effect.'

Obviously Swann was outraged at this saying that 'I was happy there, although they said I wasn't. It's not fair. I think it's really out of order but there is nothing I can do now.' Honestly if I was her employer judging from her Facebook updates it didn't seem like she was enjoying her job at all and I wholey side with the employer people have to remember that Facebook can either be public or private, once you're employed you now have to lives a private and a professional one, and in the long terms rather than trying to meld the two together it's just easiest to keep the two seperate.

There are simple ways that events such as the one that befell Kimberly Swann can be avoided, keep Facebook personal! Don't accept that friend invite from your Boss or colleagues you're unfamiliar with and even then if a friend is also friends with the Boss and they comment on an update in which you've complained about your job your boss will still see it, so always consider what you're going to type before hitting return. Next is put your profile on limited view by simply adjusting your privacy settings to friends only. I guarantee this will save a lot of grief down the line, whilst you're closing yourself of the the odd chance of networking with new people you'll have complete control over you sees your profile. Do you really need 400+ friends on Facebook or just a good 50+ mix of close to moderate acquaintances?

The Power of Twitter

2011-03-24T02:57:00.000-07:00

In the last few years the Internet has spawned two giants, Facebook and Twitter. Whilst Facebook is the social side of the Internet where you can chat and share experiences with friends, Twitter is where the really power is. With over 75 Million users Twitter is ever expanding with a range of people using it as a way to send out fast updates about themselves or the company and anyone seeking employment in a sector of the creative industry really should be on twitter, it's a great place to promote yourself but also keep up to date on the various different companies you may want to apply for.

Many games companies such as Rockstar, EA, Square Enix, Bioware and a range of others. Whats also great is that on the Twitter website you can search for users, often than not just type in the studio you want to keep updated with and you can usually find them very easily. Most of the tweets will generally be self promotion but it's not impossible if you send them a direct message that you may get a reply (I've had several in my tenure as a tweeter). Whats great about the Twitter site is that it also gives a "if you liked this have you tried.." section to the right of the company's Twitter's feed and this can usually lead to other game developers or key people within the industry.

That's the great thing about Twitter is that it's simple and easy to navigate and use, it's a great promotional tool for you aswell as you can post something such as "hey just created this awesome 3d model of a knight http://knightawesome.com" and someone will see it, you can also direct it towards the game developers but remember much like the etiquette found when dealing with interviews it's all about phrasing, don't be overly enthusiastic and constantly message one Developer as they may remember distinctly who you are should you ever apply for a job with them and if their opinion of you is negative you may have to wait a few years for them to forget about you.

An example of a retweet I recieved from the creator of the Final Fantasy Series of games.

If you want to get into tweeting seriously and keep up to date with various developers around the world my suggestion is to get a Tweetdeck (found here) as it shows all the latest tweets from the people you're following in a clear way, it also allows you to post from the deck rather than to constantly have to log into the twitter site. Remember exposure? increase yours by adding your twitter feed to your website/blog, this shows employers that look at your site that you're up on current trends and appreciate the importance of being able to give quick updates.

Twitter is an awesome tool, that can be beneficial in researching companies and promoting yourself and with so many members of the creative industry who are a part of Twitter it's become an invaluable tool that any creative should have.