Done and Done

Over the last week i have been getting all my work ready for hand in. I have been writing comments on all the work and research that i have done over the past few months of this project. I have just tried to finish the work to the best of my ability. I have changed all of the files i needed, to PDF format so that it is easier to read. I have writen up my evaluation and polished off everything else i needed to, such as any Photoshop pieces i had done beforehand. There were a few things i didn't complete that i would have preffered to get done, such as the comic strip i had been doing. Instead i had finished off eight pages of it explaining the beginning of the game's story, telling the viewer what happened and how the war began. All in all i think the project went rather well and am looking forward to starting the next part of the assignment.

Comic Time

Ok. So. I have done a few pages to my comic for my game idea. it is basically a story board to make understanding my game a little easier, explaining the beginning of the species and how the wars of Sixteen Suns had started. I have used a more simple cartoony technique for the images in this comic strip a lot like the comic i created in the second year, but maybe with a tad more detail included. 

The Joker

The comic i'm doing isn't your typical comic-like looking page layout. I'm just creating one page for each image. I have been working at the comic and so far have done eight or so images for it. I have researched into what the usuall comic would more likely look like, obviously not that i don't already know, just to get a little more of an idea how its set. I have a book called 'The Joker' which is a comic book that i bought off of a Forbidden Planet website. Its a hardback book and i recommend it to anyone who likes a good comic once in a while. Based on the story of the Joker's life and what antics he and his fellow thugs get up to. One reason i like it is because it is auite graphic, another because of the way its drawn out, and another as it has a good story. Im not usually a great comic reader, and i'll be honest, thats the only comic book, apart from a kinda comic strip in the Halo graphic novel, i own (that i know of) but i have read quite a few comic books before and they're always quite enjoyable. This one stood out also for the reason that i (like a ridiculous amount of others after seeing Batman The Dark Knight) love the Joker's character.

Inspiration

There have been so many inspirations for me over this term to do what work i have done, from books of Free Running by Sebastien Foucan and 'The Body', to games such as Little Big Planet and Gears Of War. But there are so many more artists, books, games and films that have helped me where all of my work is concerned. But the main artist that inspires me would have to be Banksy, as i love his styles. The way his work looks and what it means is suprises me at how good it is and i generally love looking at new pieces when they come along. I own a book of Banksy's, probably his most known and recognised one, which i bought a while ago now, and always like to sit down and read through. I have been trying to think up a way of including a similar style of his work into my game in some stage, maybe like in a situation where the player's base is being stomped on by a large evil monster of some sort, the graphics of the game could turn into that of Banksy's and the screen could turn black and white, or something like that. i will have to sit down and think it all over, but it would be a shame to leave out one of my biggest inspirations of all time. I have recently attempted top stencil myself as well, not on walls but on cardboard boxes at my home, and i need practice. Below are some Banksy images that i think a great.

Another Piece Of Concept

Here is another Photoshop piece i have done today. I have concentrated more on showing the Dred's colours and character in this image, rather than where the other images i have done on Photoshop are in different styles. This is a picture of the idea in my head that i have for the species in the player's army in my game to look. 

Sketchy Sketchy Sketchy

What does today bring me workwise? Hmmmmm. Well, i've started the day off by scanning all of my sketchwork into the Mac and have arranged all of the folders to put different things of different categories in, like Sketchwork, Concept Art, and Research, and so on. I am going to Nigel Potter's Photoshop lesson today at 14:00 which will be good, so im looking forward to that.

Plan B

Ok... So today's plan of going and learning more about all the Photoshop stuff went to pot, as it ended just before i got to the class. So time for Plan B. I am now working on ways of presenting my work for when it comes down to it. I have tried out, in my opinion, a more clean looking way of presenting it all, as you can see just below. The other style i had in mind was of including characters in the image, that i would creatre on Photoshop and drop onto the page in front of everything else. Characters that could hold up images i want to show for example and do other things on the page. I like both ideas, but it depends on what i get done in the little time we have left that will decide on which style to use, the clean version would take less time in all. 

Photoshop Time

Today  i plan to achieve a finished Photoshoped concept art piece. Nigel Potter is having a couple of days of teaching students from our class more about Photoshop. I have scanned in an image i drew in my sketch book of an in game species, which i am taking in to show Nigel, and hopefully get some decent feedback and advice on how to colour it and make it look nice. So with any luck i'll be going to sleep tonight  knowing i've done atleast one relatively nice piece of work today. 

Concept And Onwards

After creating everything research and review wise that i need, i will move onto creating the concept work focusing more on the character aspect of the game rather than gameplay or environment. From that i will soon move onto focusing on the Presentation. I have a certain style down for the way i am to present my work, and will be including a lot of characters in each of the pages, trying to do something more original or different at least. And from the presentation i have planned to travel onto the comic strip i talked about a few blogs down the page, also trying to get done the less important things in the project. 

Keeping Up To Date

Today i have achieved most of the research i intended to get out of the way and done with all together. My plan of action now is to move onto a little more of the concept art work using programs such as Photoshop and so on. I have already created some maybe a little more rough concept work on Photoshop showing a few of my character ideas, that can be seen below. I intend to do more of these and take more time on them, showing images of characters, and making them more clear to the viewers, using much more colour and a little more detail. Lately i have been researching and writing lots of game, film, book, and other reviews. Researching on stuff like Transformers (2007), Halo, Gears Of War, Pikmin, Spore, Batman The Dark Knight, Populous, Stranger's Wrath, Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus, Sebastien Foucan, The Body, and much more. I have used a certain similar layout for each page showing images and giving information about each subject, as you will see just below this blog.

Fighting Onwards

My Mac has broken....again! I have lost a little work here and there but hopefully i can redo it without any problems. Still getting all of the research out of the way with at the moment, focusing on Games such as Gears Of War II, Populous, Abe's Oddysee, Stranger's Wrath, and books such as Graffiti Planet and The Art Of Slinkachu. I've also been banging out some sketchbook pages of drawings of character and environment ideas over the Christmas Holidays and now. So this is what i will be doing from here on as well as creating a Comic, Presentation, and some more stuff.