a detailed look into the level of detail. I'm awesome at creating post titles.

The level of detail involves decreasing the complexity of a 3D object representation as it moves away from the viewer. For example, as an object cannot be seen for its full potential when viewed from a distance, and the more polygons that are on the screen, the laggier the game. Therefore, objects seen from a distance need to be as low poly as possible, but still have the correct visual shape that you can figure out what it is. An example of LOD could be a shotgun. From afar, the gun would have its shape and its figure, but not the detail, the closer you get to the gun, the more detail is put into it. The reason this is done is so the number of polygons used is minimised. The more polygons you use, the longer the loading time, and the bigger the drop in frame rate. That is why LOD is important. :)

children?! get gone!

Today I progressed a bit more with my spaceship - getting to the dreaded wing bend that I struggle to do >.< I think I have the right angle that I need for the rest of the wing, so I just need to rectify off that.

Maybe it needs to be less flat (the tube) and be more solid. I think that might be what the problem is.

Oh, and I taught Robin how to get a shape similar to the ship outer-case I'm using. :)

That is all. =3

Reflection on Bradford Creative Careers fair

On the 24th February at approximately 10:30 we arrived at Bradford University for the Bradford Creative Careers fair. We were faced with about 30 minutes of time to look around the Media stalls to look around at different careers and what they offer.

At about 11:00 we were sent into the hall to hear a lecture from a guy called Philip Charles who runs PiPeLine Productions - a rap and music production company for young people. [http://www.piplelineproductions.co.uk] The guy had a positive attitude about his work, and seemed really down to Earth with young people. He talked to us about getting into the music business and the enterprise behind it, as well as incorporating graffiti.

Amy Held then spoke about her job experiences, and how she did alot of voluntary work to build up her CV. She said how it was better to build up your CV before going full-time job hunting, as it will help you get the job, and help in the long run.

The other workshop we did was the 'Stop Motion competition' where we could win £25 for our troubles. Hell yeah! ^_^ we used play-doh and MicroSoft paint to our advantage, and compiled a stop motion animation based on 2 classic video games - Pong and Pacman. One problem we came across was the fact that the program we used to compile the stop motion animation took FOREVER to load. and crashed the laptop. MonkeyJam decided to make a 1.26mb file 3gb big and didn't work, and it was hard to find a suitable replacement, because Flash crashed. Finally, Windows Movie Maker became our Lord and Savior.

Overall, I think the fair was a success, although it would've been nice if it was a bit more organised.

Below is the final stop motion animation:

Our ship is in ship-shape, captain.

After finally deciding which way I should get the shape of my ship, I have come across the perfect way - extrude and resize the original sphere structure, and it seems to work a lot better. Here's the screeny of the new shape. (note: it isn't finished.)

Ship-shape screeny. =3

Today I started to create the spaceship for my main project. I experimented with a couple of ideas on how to first start building my ship - for example, an extruded sphere, or a sphere and cone combination. I think I may go for the latter of the two as I can control the nozzle shape, angle and size easier.

I am now starting to extrude the vertex in order to make the cone blend in with the sphere.

G-Unit (18) evaluation

The task set in unit 18 was that we were to generate an iPhone app icon that couldn't be seen as offensive or cause ethical issues.

I first began the project be researching popular apps in the app store and taking a look at the icons to see how they approached things, and as I expected - they all use there own icon that they created themselves. Such corporate companies like Facebook simply use there own self branding (in this case, an 'f' on a blue rounded square).

We were then given 5 themes that we needed to explore; war, fantasy, horror, sci-fi and something we could use in RClayton's unit.

For the war theme I decided to use an ancient weapon as opposed to a modern weapon; a spear. I thought it would be fitting to use an ancient weapon as a gun can also be used outside of war (e.g. gangs) but no one ever runs round with a spear impaling people with it. I think the icon could be offensive as it is seen as ‘promoting’ a weapon, so it is best to avoid using any icon like this.

For fantasy I decided to use Navi - Link's fairy. This icon can't be seen as offensive, but may breach copyright regulations. It also may not work as the only way you know who Navi is, is by playing a Zelda game before hand, so anyone who hasn't played the game before may be mislead.

For the horror theme I decided to use something linked to Zelda - Link and Link in wolf form. There is nothing that can be taken as offensive in the icon, therefore it would be a good Icon to use. However, it would breach copyright regulations and so, it would be wrong to use it.

For Sci-Fi, I couldn't think of anything to do with Zelda, so I decided to use the Plasma Rifle from the Halo series. Obviously, this has nothing to do with Zelda, so it would be pointless using this icon. Other than that, it would also breach copyright laws and mislead the client.

And finally, the icon I would use for RClayton's unit would be the Zelda logo. However, this isn't the original Zelda logo - this is a Zelda logo I created from scratch. I settled on using this as my icon in both units as it doesn't breach copyright laws and isn't offensive, so therefore fits both unit criteria's.

I then researched the specifications of the iPhone and here is what I discovered:

3.5 inch screen

480 x 320 resolution

600 MHz processor

256MB RAM

Fixed memory units (8GB,

16GB and 32GB)

Sensors- Accelerometer,

Proximity Sensor, Ambient

Light Sensor

3 megapixel colour camera

I then compared it to the HTC HD2, a competitor to the iPhone and found out that the HTC HD2 beats the iPhone in nearly every category, but due to Apple's app store and the fact that it is now seen as a fashion accessory, the iPhone still remains the more popular of the two.

The HTC HD2's specifications:

4.3 inch screen

480 X 800 resolution

1 GHz processor

448 MB RAM

Expansive memory

Sensors- G-Sensor,

Proximity Sensor,

Ambient Light Sensor

5 megapixel colour camera

with Auto focus and Dual

LED flash

My final 5 icon designs are as follows:

I also produced a document that reflects different file formats and where they are used. (bottom)

I think I met my original intentions. I set out to create an icon that looked like a Zelda logo, but managed to avoid copyright by starting from scratch, and produced an icon that cannot be taken to offence. Overall I think the icon was a success.

iMake iPhone app iCons :O

The latest project we have been given to do was to generate 5 iPhone apps based on a game/app of our choice, and show the production steps on what tools we used in PhotoShop. This was the first icon I designed. I decided to use the Zelda font, and found Link's shield on the internet, and so, I re-created my own Zelda logo. I think this icon would work well with the app i'm producing as it is straight to the point and tells the client EXACTLY what the app is. I think this icon may be a bit too simple and doesn't tell the client exactly what the app is. In a way, the app suggests 'anything to do with a bow' whereas the app itself has nothing to do with Link's bow, so therefore, it isn't suited. Again, I think this Icon may be too simple and unsuited for the app, as it suggests 'anything to with a bow'. Although it is a pretty good icon, the client may be confused and mislead to what the app actually is. This is Navi - Link's fairy. This icon seems fairly suited to the Zelda theme, as it doesn't represent exactly what the app is about, but doesn't mislead the client either. However, people may only understand who Navi is if they've played Zelda before, and so, anyone whose new to the game may not get where the link is. The final icon would work well with the dark link/light link situation, but as the app is not based around this motive, the icon would yet again, be misleading.

the angles - they make it streamlined - okay?!

Today in 3D Studio Max we designed a basic aircraft, from extruding a cylinderic shape. First, I created a cylinder - not too hard. I then extruded the polygons I needed to extrude to place the wings in the right place, and levelled them out at the right angle. I then moved some of the vertex to create a more angular and streamlined result, and shaped the wing into the right shape. After doing this, I created the tail. I extruded 4 polygons upwards, and shaped, creating angular divisions in the process to fit the planes stealthy feel. After completing this I deleted half of the shape, cloned the plane half, mirrored it, and attached it, creating a plane-like harrier stealth-bomber thing.

The not-so-realistic just saw a little bit of realism to create a realistic attempt at being realistic. Confused?

Today we were given the aim to render 3 different boxes and create a lighting effect. I first created 3 boxes, then pressed 'M' (keyboard shortcut to Material editor) and then rendered textured colours onto the shapes. After that, I used more complex texturing such as marble, swhirls, wood grain and foliage (tree). I found this alot easier than I thought it would be, and I'd happily do it again.

Do the robot.

Today we were given the objective to try and create a robot out of extruding the box shape. I simply made a box on the standard grid plane, and made it so it had a 4x4x4 segment grid on it. I then extruded 4 squares underneath the box to create the neck diaphram, and extruded the neck to create a shoulder-like neck joint. I deleted one side of the box so that it was an open sided shape, and 'cloned' one half of the robot and mirrored it, thus joining the two halves together. This then made sure the robot was symetric throughout the next creation steps. I then extruded it again to create the robots upper torso and created a cylinder shape, used the bend extrude mode, and joint it onto the torso. (using the attach button) This then made it so the arms were part of the robot. As the halves are mirrored, this then 'cloned' the arm onto the opposite side aswell, thus creating two equally symetric sides. I then continued extruding the torso (still using the polygon tool) and then switched over to the vertex tool. I extruded the vertex's (is that even a word?) inwards and continued extruding the box shape downwards, to create the robots lower torso. Finally, I finished it off by adding two spheres, a box, extruded 3 boxes on one side of the robots head, and created a spring shape, to finish off his face. Overall, I found this fairly easy to do. I did struggle every now and then, forgetting how to do certain things, but I managed to get around it. If I were to finish off the robot (including legs and such) then I estimate it'd probably take me about another 2 hours to complete. :)

Do I HAVE to? :(

Today we evaluated our desktop wallpapers, stating what we found difficult, what we think we could improve it with, what skills we developed, and the overall process of planning and developing. Evaluation to follow: After about 6 hours work in Photoshop, I finally finished my wallpaper. Compared to the original idea and draft, I think I improved it dramatically. Below is a comparison: As you can see, my final design varies slightly from the original idea. I thought the original idea was too easy to do, and that parts of the wallpaper wouldn’t seem to fit in. I also decided that the student charter should become a hiscore, as it would seemingly fit the theme of the wallpaper better, and would just look it was added in because it HAD to be there. I also re-arranged the layout as I thought that the top half of the desktop was going to look too busy and cluttered, giving the wallpaper an unattractive appeal. I scanned the original idea into the computer, and then created a rough draft in Photoshop over the original to generate a basic idea of what I was trying to create. I then recreated the image from scratch based on the draft piece, and developed it from there. I tried to give the wallpaper a clean and professional finish to it. I did so by creating the outlines of the shapes I needed, and then filled them in. I filled them in using the box tool and the grid view; this gave the wallpaper the retro feeling that I was looking for. I then copied and pasted the objects that were needed more than once, to make the wallpaper look professionally done, so the same shapes weren’t different sizes. I chose this wallpaper other my other 3 idea’s as I thought more people would enjoy it and know what it was. I also thought the idea was original as no one else had come up with an idea close to it. I based my design off a screenshot of Space Invaders in-game. This was done to get the correct shapes and layouts for my wallpaper, but at the same time I saw where I could develop my own idea’s, which is where the idea of using the icons as the ‘aliens’ came into play. This is the screenshot: As you can see, I developed on the idea of the score and lives concept. I used a font near enough to the original space invaders font, so it would still fit the theme and still keep that retro feel to it. Encountering problems I struggled greatly at the back end of the wallpaper, as I didn’t layer my work properly. Some objects that were meant to be kept separate were done on the same layer, and when moved, both objects moved. Frustrating but I got around the problem. I got around the ‘moving’ problem by using the Rectangular Marquee tool around the area that needed moving. I never really encountered any other problems, except that I struggled to make the shields straight edged. I finally fixed the problem and then developed the idea behind the student charter. What have I learnt from this project? I’ve learnt that next time I need to layer my work properly, or it takes a lot longer than it needs to be. I also need to name my layers as well, or you lose track of what layer consists of what. I’ve also learnt and used various tools in Photoshop such as the grid, various brush sizes, the fill effect, colour picking, layering, the text tool, the colour swapping tool, the move tool and the magic wand tool as well as copy and paste. I’ve also learnt that it’s easier to develop off a simple idea, rather than recreate a difficult idea and make it simpler. What skills have I developed from this project? In this project I’ve developed my Photoshop skills as well as my thoughts and idea’s. I now know that the simplest idea’s turn out to be the best and the easiest to develop, whereas the most complex ideas have ‘potential’ but aren’t normally executed properly or are too hard to complete and so are simplified. The grid tool in Photoshop was also a big help in my project as I needed to give a blocky and retro feel to the wallpaper, and thus, this created that effect. Were there any problems with time management? There were no major time management flaws that affected the final outcome of my work. However, during the planning period I struggled to think of 4 idea’s that all varied from eachother, which started to create problems. I finally came up with an original idea and was clear to move on to producing it. I met the deadline of the project, so there were no problems. If I were given the chance to do this again, there’d be nothing I’d change to the final design. I felt that the final design came out better than I expected and that there’s nothing I could change that would make a dramatic change to it. Overall I’m happy I chose this idea over the other 3.

The house of a thousand faces O.o

Today in 3D Studio Max, we were left to experiment with the vertex extrude and polygon extrude tools. I first started off the same way as I did extruding the house from last week; creating a box and extruding certain parts of it. In the end, I created some rather wierd building-thing which starts to hurt the head after a while.

WIN.

Desktop wallpaper planning Part 2: Fonts

We were assigned the task to find at least 2 fonts on the website http://www.1001freefonts.com that we could use in our final wallpaper. I found fonts Claritty, Video phreak, 256 bytes and bring tha noize, but only used bring tha noize in my final idea. Below are the font styles: Video phreak was going to be used as the score/credit/lives/hiscores headings. Claritty was going to be used as the student charter font, but I decided to use the same font as the hiscores and blend it in with it, so it fit the wallpaper theme and didn't seem to just be added on. Bring tha noize was the only external font I used. I thought it looked like retro graffiti, so I thought it fit the wallpaper theme well. 256 Bytes was an alternative to Video phreak, and was going to be used as the score/credit/lives/hiscores headings. I found a font that suited the more retro and classic Space invaders font in photoshop, so neither of these were needed.

Desktop wallpaper: Planning (turn head sideways)

Below is the plan for the Desktop wallpaper project: The above picture is a scan of one my idea's. The colour scheme in this was black and orange, as these colours were bold and contrasted from one another. This helped influence my final idea, as I knew a bold and contrasting colour scheme was needed in my final idea to make it stand out. Above is a scan of my second idea, which has sort of an organised desktop feel to it. It has labels on each of the bars, so, for example, Microsoft word, powerpoint, publisher, excel, etc. would go on the bar labelled 'Microsoft'. I then thought it was a bit bland with just the bars, so I then added the idea of abstract circles (seen on the top right and bottom right corners). I thought this was a good idea, but wanted to do something more challenging so didn't choose this. The colour scheme for this was dark grey, light grey and white, as they blended well together, but I don't think it would have stood out. Above is my third idea, and the one that I based my final idea on. I felt this was the best one to pick as it was orginal, fairly demanding to make while still remaining fairly easy, was effective, would be recognised by most/all people and the colour scheme was bold. I got the idea as I was short of ideas to base to a large audience. I decided to find some of the most recognised games of all time and compared them. Although my final wallpaper looks slightly different to this, all of my idea's for it have come from this idea. Above is my final idea. This was influenced by the Space invaders idea, as I was comparing retro games to each other to see which was the best to do. I was going to pick this, but thought the different colours would have been tedious. That and the fact I can't draw Mario :O

Desktop wallpaper :)

today I finally finished my desktop wallpaper project. It took about a week of planning, and about 4 hours of creating the wallpaper. 4 hours of photoshop layer pain D: Like always, I forgot to layer my work correctly and name them, making it harder in the long run as I forgot where everything was :O After a painful 4 hours, its finished, and what a result :) Below is the wallpaper without the icon layout: and, at the bottom, the wallpaper with the icons laid out correctly on it. :) After drawing 4 seperate wallpapers, I decided this one may be the best one to do (plan to follow this post). I altered the design slightly, as I needed a better layout. Before, the icons would have overlapped the wording, giving an unclean and messy finish to it. I also decided to change the student charter points into a hiscore, so they're still in the wallpaper, but fit better to the theme. I also rearranged the icons in a way that they look like they're part of the wave of aliens. I then added in 3 'aliens' into the desktop to fill in some gaps, and seperate the icon group clusters. I tried giving it a retro feel by giving the space invaders wallpaper a blocky feel. I put a grid over the canvas, and then made the shapes out of squares. Finally, to finish it off, I added the media suite logo in a sort of retro-like graffiti, the Shipley college logo, and the score and credit text. All in all, I'm pleased with the final result. :)

Property development. :)

Today in 3D Studio Max we did Unit 64 - Basic box modelling. I created a box, and extruded some of its vertex in order to create a roof. I then extruded a 'door shape' into the house, to make it seem more life-like, gave the roof a chimney, and gave the the house an extension. I then selected the vertex of the roof corners and extruded them, giving it a more 'unique' look, and then altered the chimney. Below is the step by step view of my basic box modelling:

Collage, College.

Above (or below, depending on where Blogger decides to put it).

The A3 paper is split into 4 different genres: Horror (top left), Sci-fi (bottom right), War (top right) and fantasy (bottom left).

We did this by cutting out pictures we thought would represent these 4 genres, (from magazines such as EDGE), and arranged them in a plausible order.

Desktop Wallpaper project

After using http://www.mindmeister.com/ I created a mindmap based on the desktop wallpaper theme.

This is the result after 2 hours.

Well, the job that I thought would be easy, was. I found it easy to animate the word "Bounce!" and thats exactly what I made it do. :) I had to extrude the word on different frames, and the program did the rest in smoothing it out.

Creating my name in 3D Studio Max

After a frustrating hour of trying to get to grips with 3D Studio Max, I finally created a masterpiece! (well, i'm proud of it!)
This is what I got:






I made this by using the "Ransom" font and writing my name. I extruded the letters, then placed a star on the top right corner, so it looked like a "glinting" effect.

I then used a ripple effect to make it more 3D like.

3D Studio Max

Last week was the first time I've ever used 3D Studio Max. After having a bit of a mess around with it, here's what it turned out like:



When I first started using 3D Studio Max, I found it mind boggling. It was difficult trying to get used to the different axis (XYZ) to maneuver the objects around. The camera rotation tool was fairly hard to get used to aswell.
Overall, I found the Session productive, as it has helped me get to grips with 3D Studio Max. :)