Art Direction

For this part of my blog i will talking about  Art direction.

Art direction for me kind of touches on the idea of yourself being a unique artist. To deconstruct someone else work and extract what you like about it is as much as reflection of yourself as it is finding what type of person you are. if that makes sense? today i will be breaking down a digital painting piece by 'Muju' called 'Empress of the winter palace'

This Digital painting speaks to me on a level to which i don't really think i fully understand yet, When i see this work i can really feel the lines across it, When i see this artists work i get shivers and i can't really put it into words, The piece explodes on so many levels, But just falls so short in memory, When i'm away from this artist and i pick up a pen i get such a strong urge to drown canvas in just pinks and blues and reds and just paint until my hands go numb.

It's pretty messed up honestly, But i'm passionate, I love painting now, My previous background in life saw me drawing for academic purposes I've never wanted to paint so badly in my life and it's exciting and i'm just happy, looking at this piece puts in all of these places just from looking at what could most definitely be achieved in an two hour tops

The face is such a tiny focal point holding only around 1/32 of the page yet the sheer strength of this piece hits like me like a photograph of a portrait. The brush strokes are almost like the focus. The more intense they are the more i'm drawn into it like some kind of lost puppy, The Decoration and details are all in the mind, my imagination creates all these beatifically delicate chains and amulets and when i actually notice them they fade away because the details implied, In a strange way it adds to the realism of this painting, The face in focus everything else blown away. Blown AWAY! the vibrancy of color in this piece is like looking at a fireworks display there are reds orange pinks blues which match so perfectly together.
 everything else outwards of that literally just melting away into ultra simplistic strokes and ultra vibrant strokes, and completely insane ones

This piece holds very bold shapes mainly round strength of her jaw line and the corresponding crown of jewels and wings, the soft curve of the arm breaks up the piece and gives her a warm delicate feeling, A feeling that the piece isn't violent as the brushstrokes may lead to speak aggression i only feel gentleness for the piece and would no way call it aggressive in the outwards of the piece leads to me question why is hold this piece so close, I've not really got a reason to hold such Stylized are so close, But this is is completely sky-high to me, I want to be able to do this, This artist holds me so well, i seem to be literally obsessed by these portraits and it's completely alien to me, But it's something i'm not not faking and that much mean something, There's nobody around and i i feel like this is my ambition to paint like, or at least, try. ;D

  

Top of the mountain!

          A Brief History Of Computer Games 2000-Present!

Halo: Combat Evolved sparked the opening of a grand explosion of life for me (Halo fan), The 2001 Bungie produced 3D first person shooter, Was a sensational hit, It's multiplayer, Certainly showed potential for the new age of computer games with the early xbox (2001) being released Microsoft quickly snatched Halo as a launch title, The small team of students at the time jumped at the opportunity and so the legend was born.

The halo universe sparked up much interest into the halo universe with it's multipurpose experience of driving shooting flying and sniping halo acquired a notable fan base.

Although i don't play this game and i personally hold quite a disgusting view towards those who 'worship' it, There is no denying the culture and life that has been created in this vast MMORPG of World of warcraft 2004. Warcraft saw many extension to the franchise including commercial advertisements featuring Mr.T popularing the game certainly for a lot of people in my neighborhood but at the same time loosing them to it, Blizzard has created an exceptional title that at the time re-wrote the laws MMORPG's for the better and shaped the future it at the same time!

DELTA SQUAD!

These fabulous four are delta well, Ti used to be there but.. well.. don't ask. So gears of war 2006 by the beloved Epic Games, Provided a new feel of gameplay of gorey chainsawing action of the 'locust'

invading from the depths below, You play Marcus fenix the leader as he defends his home, The game was a breath of fresh air with a fresh way to kill, Making use of intricate cover systems player find themselves navigating and co-coordinating a team with brave shotgun 'duel's' online!

Then. Nintendo came out of nowhere and sold over 10 million more units than the xbox 360 and totally gave birth a whole new market, fitness. The craze was insane, Under every TV in the country, Whether there was predominantly either an Xbox or Playstation, there wasn't a little Wii to accompany it. After being released in 2006 it's launch title 'Zelda Twilight princess was a massive success and was the key to the wii's success the shakey joysticks and wiggly analog sticks held in both hands prompted you to get out of your armchair this arguable kick started the whole generation of mums on balance boards and kids throwing wii remotes at there telly!

My word. Red dead redemption (2010), Quite literally the most humble game I've ever played, This intense story driven game has been bringing players to their knee's under the hot sun in this Southern delight, Created by Rockstar (&North) I can't tell you anything more about the game, I'm in awe of spoiling it's heartwarming story, To put it into perspective i played this game on it's release in 2010, and even now as i am writing is, I am still listening to it's hour and half soundtrack in excitement, Which even surprises me.



REF: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/editorial/37210/comparing-wii-us-sales-to-gamecube-wii
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Hearts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_North


(BUNGIE DOCUMENTRY MUST WATCH The founders bungie as teenagers irresponsible but working hard like real men!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vTDwW3H5Jw

The light Jog!

A Brief History Of Computer Games 1970-2000s

The first computers games were derived from post world war mainframes, Machines that serve the primary purpose of code braking and the mathematics's of war, 'Tennis for two' made by the creater William Higinbitham in 1958.

Tennis for two was released long before any of the first video game commercials and even long before pong was release

This two player game tennis game was incredibly simple and enjoyable, It's core feature was it's replicated ball physic.

ARCADE! ARCADE!

The penny dropping miracle begins, The concept was you put a coin in and blam you play the game! This revolutionary concept change the lives of millions! One of the earliest arcade games ever produced, pong, otherwise marketed as 'PONG' was one of the most popularized mainstream arcade games of the time. Made by Atari games and invented by Nolan Bushnell PONG, Even though at the time players of that generation were accustomed to 64-bit graphics processing generally more powerful processors the games simplistic pleasure proved more then effective in making happy players and by the end of 1973 8,000 to 10,000 PONG machines were sold!

Maze wars was arguable the first, first person shooter made steve cooley in 1974, Maze war found you navigating a large maze as seen on it's HUD to shoot the other player, This multiplayer FPS was linked up to two computers via the first few Ethernet!

Bomber vs. killer! (Lecture Reference)

As we move a little bit down the timeline we hit the major CRASH!!! that could have potentially destroyed an entire industry, The great video game crash of 1983. and as one side of the earth struggled and panicked it was up to the sneaky Japanese Nintendo to come into the light for what would be the most successful spike of all of gaming history,

Dudum-dum-duda-dum-dum.. Mario Bros!

In 1893 Nintendo corporation released Mario Bros. In the turtle tipping game that changed the company forever Mario Bros! became the most iconic gaming franchise that is still alive and kicking with us today, I'm not usually a fan of the mario games but theres something about mario that brings out the game fanatic in everyone.

1990's!

The end of the Era marked the new era of sprite graphics, and Parralax scrolling backdrops leading the player to feel depth and distance in the scene, this is still a technique that is used in modern sprite based 2D platforms  Shadow of the beast was one of the first to make the most of these new graphic capabilities making good use of art techniques in character sprites!

Reflections Studio 1989.

Nearing the end of the millennium we can see the in 1995, We have Wipeout!

We start entering the realm of my era and the beginning of mine, i can remember playing a later version of this game on the PlayStation (being born in 1994 i was only 1 when this came out). Wipe out made great use of the PlayStation system 

and made hugely competitive game in it's time slot, Wipe out was a technical achievement in itself moving from the popular Wolfinstein 3D just two years before it!

REF!

http://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Bros._(game)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7chDIySXK2Q
http://www.pong-story.com/atpong1.htm
http://videogamehistory.wikia.com/wiki/Tennis_for_Two

The Spark

Brief History of Computer Games 1850's - 1950's

The history of computer games can be traced as far back as the war slung post world war britain labelled commonly as the 'Dark Ages' of the 1850's, computers of this era are a mere fraction of ability in relation to the machines of today, Computers of the 1850's , A realisation of master mathematicians, The first realisation of a concept of 'microcomputing' was adapted from the process of calculations.

In 1822 Charles Babbage developed the concept of the 'Difference engine', a piece of machinery which   would calculate multiple sets of numbers as well as hard printing onto a material, This system would have proved useful as this system was more accurate and much quicker than the current order in place of a human team of mathematicians. However the concept was never actually created, the machine was               designed but never constructed at the time however the difference machine was actually commissioned and fully built a whopping 143 years after Babbage's death, Built in 2002. In the flesh the machine itself is an impressive feat accomplished the machine stands 11ft high and consists of 8,000 parts.

Designed by tommy flowers, machine used in world war II to break code

Moving Onwards down the timeline we skip down to 1943 computing hadn't developed a whole much world war one and world war two have came and gone, Computers of this time were predominantly possessions of the military designed to break code an example of which is the Colossus (image below) which served as code breaker in british hands during world war II and was the world's first ever programmable digital computer. These large installations were sometimes large enough to fill whole rooms these machines, To todays standards these machines were hardly a fraction of our current processing abilities looking back down to the 1800s it's still a technical achievement but we still aren't any nearer to our benchmark of today. 

< This lady is a programmer, so cool!!!!

Women served a huge role in the history of computing. Women played a large role in the development of computing and were on the front line when it came to maintaining and running these mainframes but were sadly the un-song song of their time, with impacts back to 1800s. Augusta Ada King was a woman who is most well known for writing a concept similar to Charles Babbage's Difference engine as time moved on 100 years later her death in 1953 was recognised for her description of a computer and software.  On December 10 1980, (Which was Ada's birthday) The U.S department gave the go ahead for there new programming language and named it after 'Ada', Which is an amazing thing.










Nearing the end of the era in 1962 we enter a more familiar realm of life. 'Spacewar!' the invention of the first ever computer games comes to your screen! well, those who could afford it that is, The actually two player 'Spacewar' was made by 'Stevel Russell' put you against your friend in an attempt to let you destroy each other! Little did they know they had 'spawned' a whole new industry.






Reference:https://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/admissions/what_is_cs/FamousWomen.html
http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/
http://femtechnet.newschool.edu/docs/women-in-computing-history-overview/
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/stories/babbage.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage (I'm sorry it's wikipedia)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/babbage_charles.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine

MAX on MIDI

So.. I was in the labs the other day and i was welding a shit ton of verts and my hand was getting tired from stretching up and forwards and hitting CTRL+Z and holding ALT all the time and i found myself flipping my normals and going through the process of Resetting and collapsing my X-form far too often and it was really pissing me because the amount of time leaving the scene to head to the menu's was far too much.. scrolling and surfing around.. 

This is not an excuse to talk about maya but.. in maya, all your controls are on the mouse with right-click drag hidden menu's that are much more intuitive than actually moving back and forth from menu's and having to right click to reset values and what not, So i had an idea..

Sometimes for a bit of de-stressing i make drum & bass and dubstep and do some oscillator based sound design work just to piss around and make noises and from that i learned a shit done about MIDI interfaces and just how primitive these circuits are based upon, So it got me thinking why not find a way to use my keyboard to fire one-shots of poly modelling scripts and shortcut commands to aid the process of modelling

Oneshots like

- Reset and Collapse X-form
- Reset and Center pivot
- Weld, Chamfer & Extrude

Or even any kind of script you can possibly need by google searching all the way across rainbow

Quick snap of my keyboard:

After a bit of research and a bit of trial and error i managed to overcome a lot of dated, dated repeat dated program versions to a one that would run 64-Bit Win8 and it worked with just two programs, A Translator for the Midi input signals and a converter for output signals from the device converter from the controllers MIDI signal to what i think is a DMX signal type, So now any part of my interfaces functions can be reprogrammed using the translation into any command desired, Whether your working in UDK, Cry, MAX Maya, Mudbox, Zbrush or even Houdini or the random pyro fx, hell you could use it on paint if you wanted so long as you program your shortcuts it's purpose is universal and that's why it's more conventional then keyboard shortcuts in general..

I was in the cintiq room listening to kat and anna talk to some first years about the irration of moving between softwares in the pipeline and i can understand that pain from first person and another cool thing is that you can program banks or shortcuts with a button switch for either bank like so..


Setting up this system required such references from 'Midiox.com' for audio synth converters most to all questions i needed for the circuit to work was from FAQ's on their website referenced at 'You obtain the best sounding synthesizer you can find, perform the MIDI file via a sequencer or MIDI player, and record the output in a sound recording application'

So as far as portability is concerned all you need is ONE pen drive and my setup is sorted

Both softwares when installed portably with the support and build files being rooted into the USB you can run the programmable interface straight from any PC, and edit them 'On the fly' (like a pro).

And best of all it fits in my bag with ease..
I'll be testing this out over the next few weeks to see how useful it is and if it's worth it.

Get low! - 546 Triangle (figure)