Week Summary

This is the first week being back at university since the Easter break.

On Monday, I decided to add someone I was working with at EGX Rezzed from CodeMasters on Twitter. They got in contact with me and we spoke briefly about the weekend and they told me about some job roles going around that if I should apply they will put in a good word. That was really nice to know. I will aim to stay in touch with them from time to time.

I also decided to go into university and head to the library to find some books on UI and for more advice for my portfolio and what to expect from a job interview. Since doing the event it has given me more of a drive to become part of the games industry.

I did managed to find a book that may help me with the job aspect. In this book it does talk about different job roles and some good advice from industry experts which will give me more knowledge of the interview process. It does have some UI sections which is useful.

On Tuesday, I heard more the from the UI artist at Codemasters. (Update we have been in touch most days since Rezzed).

I also have been doing more to my model using the poly-painting method. I have decided to use the method of textures. I have found the images on the website:  https://www.textures.com/

Above are some of the images I have downloaded from the website that I have used or intended to use if necessary. These images work well with damage marks to the metal of the body.

I would like to get the poly-painting completed by the end of this week to early next week.

On Wednesday, I continued with poly-painting my model, it is a long process. I am still using textures from images from time to time and always using alphas to give me the appearance of a textured surface and finer details. I have also downloaded some alphas from the Z brush website to help me get the desired effect I am looking for.

https://pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/alpha/

 This image shows just some of the alphas you can download for free.

I have also had to add more polys to certain areas to my model such as areas of the arms and legs because the poly-painting method was not showing detail on the hard flat surfaces.

 This image shows the image texture on the arm and also added topology to gain a smoother result.

 Still need editing with the poly-painting but it is getting there.

On Thursday I went into university and shown some of my class the model so far, some suggested that I a little more personality to the character such as war paint, a name printed on the model. I took on their advice and went into Photoshop and produced some quick paint overs of war paint designs over the robot face. 

I decided to do quite a few different designs, some comical than others. I got some feedback from some of my class. The colour red was a top pick, I thought the same. And most of them who I asked liked the simple red paint effect over the eyes. I also thought that design worked well, as it's not to detracting from some of the other designs. 

On Friday, I went into university in the morning as I had my feedback from 'Aiden Lesanto' about the UI art test. It was great to see everyone thoughts and processes on what they created and how their UI worked if it was in a game. I was also surprised at how many of the people in the group wanted or was thinking about going into a UI job role. Most people I know are aiming towards a 3D role in environments or characters so it was surprising to know that some others where also thinking UI especially the year 2 students.

The feedback that I got back from Aiden was positive. He did like my design and he was surprised and impressed at how detailed I made the wire frames that I created in Basiliq were. He looked over my final design and liked the details, he gave me some tips on areas but told me I had potential which was really good to hear. Later that day I managed to have one to one chat with Aiden and showed him my current project which he really liked and wishes me to email him when my project is completed as he would like to see the final outcome of the piece. I will remember to do that. We spoke for sometime and I asked him questions on how I could create a UI piece for my model, he suggested I look into using smart objects in Photoshop, I will look into this in more depth. I also told him as I am new to UI and have not yet got work for my portfolio I am worried about it, he told me he was the same when he was a student and told me to focus on it when I finish university and just build up a portfolio, He gave me advice on how to do this and told me his own experiences. It was good to talk to someone who was also in the same position as me only a short time ago, it gave me the confidence that if I work hard enough I will get their eventually.

Also earlier in the week I put myself forward to partake in the small QA brief set by 'Imagination studios' I made sure to start this task as soon as I could as time is running thin now till hand in. I played a chapter or two of the game Friday night and then went back to it Saturday morning. The game took no longer than 3 hours to complete. It was enjoyable as I have never played a narrative game such as this where motion capture is used this way. I had to answer just a few question's. I found the questions to be more based around the promotion aspects of the game more than its game play which I found interesting. I wanted to do this task to get a feel for QA even though it was not as full depth as a real QA position it was a start and a experience.