Post 12 - Week 13 session

The session focused on task two (ACM Draft report) and we talked about finalising our final project ideas. At this stage, I am a little unsure about what I wish to do. I'm pretty sure that I wish to work for a games company, but whether its modelling or animation is still up for debate. I enjoy the sculpting in ZBrush, but I have a natural aptitude for animation and the motion capture suite is what drew me to this course so I am a little confused, but I'm sure I'll have a better idea in the next week or so.

Possible ideas at this stage include:

1) Construct and animate a character in a series of short films

This would involve rigging and possible use of motion capture.

2) Study the differences between key framing and motion capture

This would be leaning towards the animation side of the course and allow me to investigate both areas of the technology. Slight modelling may be applicable, but unsure at this stage. May use stock characters, or make my own depending on my own technical competencies.

3) Model a series of characters

This would require minimal animating, but would be modelling heavy so not sure about this option.

Ms Strudwick mentioned the XBox 360 Kinect. This would be a very interesting tool to use (granted it costs £130, but it is the latest in commercially available motion tracking software). Could relate to option 2, but again at this stage I'm keeping my options broad, until I am sure about what I wish to do.

Post 11 - Task One, plus grade

Since my last entry, I have completed task one (web diagram plus bibliography). in total, the bibliography has 49 separate references and have all been written whilst following the Harvard form of referencing.

Additional research which was not added to the blog had been added to the research diagram. This is due to the fact that some of these materials feature on my other blogs and I did not want to end up repeating informaiton.

The web diagram has been created with a kind of space / retro game theme. The idea was at every significant change in the web diagram's narrative to include a simple drawing. This would be a recognisable character, or gaming related icon (such as space invaders, power ups and son on). As the viewer progresses through the web diagram, the icons become more recent (i.e, icons start with Taito's 1978 classic space invaders and ends with 90's Mario style mushroom power ups). It includes and documents my research into the relevant areas of interest such as 3d modelling and animation. This was done using a large range of sourced materials and I feel that I did a thorough job.

Here is a link to my Prezi web diagram - LINK

I recently received my grade and was delighted to discovery that I was given a 70% grade. Very pleased with the result and hoping to keep up the good work. I did not get any feedback for this work, but I did work very hard on this and feel that the mark I got was fitting.

Post 10 - ZBrush Book

Most recently, in association with my 3D Technologies module,  I have been looking into several publications by Scott Spencer. One example of this is the book

called: ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy, published by Sybex in 2010.

Here is a link to some information about the book:

More information on this and other books that I am looking at can be found in my 3D Technology blog.

Book - LINK

Post 09 - Modelling and personal requirements research

I have been looking into a lot of modelling techniques; specifically characters and discovered that a lot of products in the gaming and digital entertainment industry are 'sculpted', using digital sculpting, or 'clay'. Two of the main software packages are Autodesk's Mudbox and Pixologic's ZBrush. Although Autodesk has a huge range of 3D software packages, in terms of digital sculpting ZBrush has been around for considerably longer and therefore in my opinion has more to offer in terms of the interface, tools and work output. I have been looking into this as I am interested in roles such as content creator and character designer, specifically in the gaming industry. It was interesting to find out that a lot of products that I know of were made using ZBrush, such as the PS3 game Little Big Planet, as well as the 2010 blockbuster Avatar and many other games games such as Assassin's Creed 2. So it appears that a lot of content for computer games can be created using software such as Autodesk's 3Ds Max, Maya etc, motion is created using either Key framing actions, or Motion Capture (as mentioned in my 3D Animation blog), or by combining the two using programs such as Autodesk's Motion Builder and Maya.

From this, I have been looking into the best way to explore ZBrush and digital sculpting. Here are a couple of links which have been very useful:

Pixologic website

This website is great as it is updated regularly and is hosted by the creators of ZBrush. It includes interviews, case studies, examples of work as well and tutorials and hints and tips. I am currently going through the video tutorials and will soon be experimenting by making a game style character (as mentioned in my 3D Technology blog)

3D Total website

A great online and printed magazine, which also features interviews (currently following the work of Cedric Seaut), case studies and tutorials. This website also provides free models, something which I am taking advantage of in my 3D Animation module)

3D World - ZBrush Essential 'bookazine' 

This is a large magazine, which has been published exclusively on ZBrush. This includes a DVD which has over 20 tutorials on it, with over 10 hours of videos. This was published in November and will b of great help.

CG.tutplus - ZBrush additional tutorials

This website has been very useful and also contains many video tutorials for ZBrush. It covers similar ground to that of the Pixologic website, but as they are different tutorials, its always good to see how other people navigate and use the software. 

At this stage, there seems to be a a lot of research into the modelling, sculpting sector, with relevance to games as this is what I am interested in. Animation is also an interest of mine, so some more research should be done in this area also.

I will soon look into a couple of case studies, before creating my Web Diagram by using Prezi.

Links:

Pixologic website: LINK

3D Total website: LINK

3D World - ZBrush Essential 'bookazine': LINK 

CG.tutplus - ZBrush additional tutorials: LINK 

Post 08 - Week eight session, plus more research

This week's session was devoted to looking back at the module specifications and talking about how to present the information for Task One. The software Prezi was mentioned and has been shown to be very useful in displaying information using paths and links. After discussing how to showcase this information, it became apparent as to how I may show my research.

This diagram shows that the main areas to cover are: 

Animation, 3D Technology (Modelling) and The games industry. 

When each circle connect, each topic is connected, so this then becomes:

Animation & 3D Technology, 3D Technology & Games Industry, Games Industry and Animation

Then in the center, this is all three. I think that this has helped me to see what I need to look into.

Post 07 - Autodesk

 As mentioned in my animation blog, Autodesk provide a large range of resources and software products. These range from animation to modelling. Some of these include 3D Studio Max, Maya, Motionbuilder and Mudbox. An interesting resource for Autodesk can be found in the following link. This is the link for Autodesk's showreels, and showcases how their products have been used in both the games and animation industry. It shows some amazing projects and spans over a wide demographic. Very visually entertaining and makes it relatively clear that they are at the forefront of the industry.

This is a very good source of information as every clip shown has the companies name in the corner, allowing for every clip to be researched.

Another good resource for research is the Autodesk Media and Entertainment section of their website.

Autodesk Showcase reels - LINK

Autodesk Media & Entertainment - LINK

Post 06 - Ethics session with Darren Wall

Ethics 101

Ethics, population ?

In the last session of Research Practice, we had Darren Wall in to speak about media ethics. This was an interesting talk and allowed the group for the first time to actively engage in debate and discussions into the notion of what is suitable to show, share and use as research. This allowed me to gain an understanding of media ethics and will be useful for my research.

I have been doing a significant amount of research, but it is mostly logged on my other blogs, as it is concerned with animation and 3D technology. I have recently found and have been using the on-line publication 'Develop Magazine'. This magazine is focused on the games industry and has an array of articles on both animation and 3D technology. One such article is one on Motionbuilder, which is a motion specific software and can be used with motion capture to gain real time recordings. This magazine can be purchased, or downloaded as a pdf, making it extremely easy to access.

Develop Magazine - LINK
MotionBuilder - LINK
Ethics Image - LINK