Showreel 2nd draft/ Asset Sheet/ The future

For this week I have been working on 3 different main aims that I wanted done for this week, these been the 2nd draft of my showreel which includes moviedump, an asset and webiste sheet and also I wanted to write about what I think the future holds for me and How Im Going to get there.

Website/Asset Sheets

I am going to start off with the website and assets sheets. In my previous blog update I talked about this in detail so I wont bore you with the same information, basically I have come to the conclusion that the environment sheets are pretty good for the website and also presenting as beauty shots but when looking back on the asset sheet i actually came to the conclusion that it didn't work really well. I wanted more for the assets, i wanted you to be able to understand how the asset would work in game so i created a new asset sheert that I think works a lot better. In this sheet you also see the wire frame, bare in mind the asset on the left of the picture will be textured and wont be plain.

 

As you can see i have kep the environment sheet the same but I have changed the asset sheet so that it allows me to put a description for the asset. I like the asset sheet a lot more than the other sheet I did and I think that when I heard feeback and what I could chnage to make that better it will then be good enough for the website.

2nd Showreel Draft

For the showreel I knew what I wanted and for the past few weeks I have been getting a lot closer to reachig my goal, My first showreel draft didnt feature any fading techniques, no moviedump and also no text, so for this second draft showreel I have used all of these so i can see where needs improving and what works at the moment. I knew my showreel would feature more environments than props and that was even if there was props, but I managed to fit in one draft turntable in UDK which I am still unsure about. I am still debating whether to have any turntables in my showreel and just have environments and leave all the props for my website, but I will come to that bridge when I cross it.

I was looking around the 2.30 mark for my showreel and it around the low 2 minute mark at the moment with just screenshots of my 3rd environment so that will push the final time up to towards my target. The only thing else I would like to incoparate into my finished showreel would be a working turntable in UDK if i use props. I am currently working on this at the minute and it looks promising.

I think for my 2nd showreel draft I am getting closer to my main goal, I would like to be able to put more depth into the fading with maybe a different filter but I have time for that when I going to be finishing it. I think for the time being I am happy with it and would like to get people opinions on which parts I should change and also which parts work well within the showreel.

http://vimeo.com/17932128

Draft showreel 2 from David Keenan on Vimeo.

The video above isn,t the highest quality but if you click the link you can see a better quality version which shows the fading in more detail. 

The Future

Area Of Study

For the past 2 years I have been working out what I want to do in the future in the games industry. I've learnt this year for definite that I want to be an environment artist. I feel like this area excites me and makes me want to work more and see the finished model, I also like starting the work and seeing how the end product comes out. There is also the fact that when I do props I feel like you don't get enough time in the games industry to do it to the best of your standard, where as an environment does take time so you get the opportunity to work with other great modelers and put more detail in to the work.

How to get there

At the beginning of the year I was actually really concerned about finding a job in the industry because my skills weren't up to scratch and I didn't feel confident in getting work done in  time. It was only a few weeks back i was just looking on the internet and what skills are needed to get into the industry as an environment artist. When going through the bullet points there was only 2 areas in which I didn't feel very confident about and which I am working on at the moment, one was lighting and effects which I am currently doing in 3 environments this year and I am learning as I go along, the other one been having some sort of knowledge of sculpting software. I know how to use mud box very basically and haven't really used z brush so im hoping that I can gain more skills in this area by the end of the year.

To say i've still got 4 months left of university Im feeling really confident about the skill set I have at the moment and Im hoping to add to this skill set so Im set for the future.

Promoting My Work

Of course to get into the games industry I have to be able to promote and show off my work. I intend to do this by setting up a website that will show off my showreel and all my other work within the gallery section. Doing a website is a great way of showing off my work because I can send employers this so they can get an idea of the work I am capable of before they ask me for an interview.

I think over the year I will keep looking at how I am going to lay my website out and also the best way to present my work, I will be doing this by looking at other peoples portfolio websites and jotting down my own ideas. There are many different ways of presenting your portfolio but setting up a website is the simplest way and also the easiest I think.

Conclusion

So I think the question to ask is what has this module taught me about the games industry and how do I get a job in my specific area. Well on a whole this module has taught me that to be an environment artist you can't just be good at modeling buildings, an environment artist skill set has to very vast which includes everything from sculpting to lighting. I didn't know that this was needed at the beginning of the year but after doing reserach I now do. I have also learnt that when you get the time away from work I should try to learn something that I have yet to learn, a good example of this was for a project I am currently doing which required dust particles, I took time out to learn how to do this and now I can use this technique again be it in the games industry or on another project.

I have also learnt that spreading my ideas out and getting on with them helps me out in the long run, by this I mean before this year I was only interested in doing run down environments because I liked the idea of been able to grime up the environment. In this year I am doing 3 environments all of them requiring different kinds of texturing and only one of them been a run down environment. I think this helps me considerably because i now know more than just box modelling.

As for the question how do I get to the industry, well If I carry on working like I am doing and start to work on the areas that I am not so good on I believe I should be good enough at the end of the year to look for the job I want. I hope that in 4 months time I am writing that the skills I wasn't so good at I am now getting really good with the software and I am feeling confident in getting a job

Asset and Environment presentations

When looking into how to present my work on my website I had a load of different ideas, some being realistic and others not so, but what I did notice when looking at other peoples online portfolios was everything was simple yet it worked. When i create my website I want both props and my environments to be shown on screenshots as well as my showreel.

Of course in my showreel you will be able to see more detail in the environments because most of my time has been dedicated to my environments, where as the props don't really get long enough., because of this I was having the problem how to present everything in a even manner.

To solve this problem I started looking at other environment artists online portfolio's to see hoe they had overcome the problems I was having. I noticed straight away how they had solved the problem and by doing this give me time to put different ideas in to my portfolio. What the artists did on there website was the main page, which is the page you see when the link is clicked presented the showreel, which I thought was really good. There was also the option for you to click the links at the top of the webpage which then linked you to screenshots of work that may have or may not have been shown in the showreel, either way you got to see the props and environments on there own in more detail.

http://www.jaredskold.com/ did this really well in his showreel because his showreel I think was very outdated, I think that his showreel is what got him jobs in the industry and since then he had worked on different games whcih he showed within the environment/prop link. I really liked this idea of putting every piece of work you think is good enough to go on your website within the gallery side of things because it allows people to look at the models and Maps in more detail than it does within the showreel video.

This then left me with the question how do i present my screenshots on my website gallery. When doing some research I noticed everyone had the basics down E.G. there name and contact deatils, but what they never had was what software they used. This for me was shocking because I like to know where the models are rendered.

They also presented screenshots of there assets differently to there environments, which made sense because for the assets you also have to present the maps. After a lot of research into how to present my work I took all the information and made my own asset and environment sheet.

These are not final but I haven't seen any like this before and I think they can work well within the gallery on the website.

 

 

I have used the same template to present my work but obviously for the assets I have used different angles so other people get to see the model in more detail. The prop models will be textured when there finished and they will probabily been on some sort of structure so you can see the shadows. As for the environments well the gallery side of theings will basically contain beauty shots, the rest either been on fly through video or within my showreel.

None of these templates are for certaina and are just drafts, I would like comments on what good and what you think i should change to give the shots better quality.

Moviedump

My main for this week was to get moviedump working so that over christmas i can focus on putting togther a better showreel. I was still having trouble exporting the video out because every time i loaded the shortcut the game would crash. After searching around on the net and asking freinds I worked out the problem.

Matthew renshaw tolded me that for it to not crash I had to put a player spawn down which I then did and finally got movie dump working. My aim was to get the exported video working so i could put in on to this blog too show you the quality difference.

I want the finished version to be something like this except I want it to start off with no textures and start in wireframe, then as it gets further into the video have the textures fade in slowly to see how it has deveopled.

I will be doing this with all of my environments, this video is just a test to see if moviedump worked and also to see the qaulity. I am hoping for next week to update my showreel with moviedump added to it rather than the fraps i used in the first showreel.

Showreel Draft1

This week I have been working on turntables and getting my first draft done of my showreel. By first draft I mean first draft, I still havent been able to work out how to do dumpmovie because our tutor was ill last week so I am currently still using cam studio to capture my videos and I having a lot of issues doing what I actually want in my showreel.

In my showreel I will have 3 environments and they are all quite big, I want to show them off the there full potential and by doing this I though panning through the level would be a good idea. I know dumpmovie is the way to get the video out which isnt the problem. I want to be able to fade from just the model into wireframe them fade the textures over the model which is really simple In maya, but I want this all in UDK. I havent come across the method on how to do this just yet but I know it's possible because of showreel's I have previously seen.


This is my first draft of at least 5 becasue I want my finished showreel to look like i have imagined. In this showreel I have faded out the model into wireframe using maya because no methods found yet in UDK, I have then faded them into a pan through in UDK which isnt brilliant but you get the idea.

This is why I want to be able to fade models into wireframes then into textures in UDK becasue the camera is at the same angle and same height, so everything would fit nicely together. Also the music in the background isnt what im having in my showreel, its just give the showreel some life.

As you can see from the video above I have had to inprovise around areas where I couldnt get certain methods to work. I am hoping for next week I have dumpmovie fully working then i can carry on working on my showreel.

If the video is unclear then the better res one is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQI7T_j_lBY

DumpMovie Attempt

This week my aim was to attemp to dumpmovies in udk so that i can use this technique in my showreel. I went about doing this technique by using the notes I made in the lesson when our tutor was going through this technique.

I managed to get everything working besides the actual exporting as a dumpmovie. I started with setting up a camera in UDK then using kismets and groups to allow the camera to pan through an environment I am currently working on.

I then went on to try and create the shortcut that is needed so the dumpmovie can work, I copied the information where the files should save, but it wouldnt work, I did try for a good few hours to sort the problem out but at the end of the day i couldnt work out what I was doing wrong.

After a couple of hours trying to get it working I gave up and used some software called camstudio to record the environment beign panned through, In a way I feel like I have still learnt a lot about cameras and kismets this week but tommorow I will be asking my tutor where i went wrong and If he could see anything wrong with how i was exporting.

Above is some WIP i am doing for an assignment, this version is the camstudio one cropped and sorted out in sony vegas, it isnt excellent but i felt I should put this video up then next week I can show the difference when I get dumpmovie working because the difference in quality is excellent.

So for next week I am hoping to have dumpmovie working and also some turntables of props that I am working on in my western scene, I can then start to put all of these techniques together to get a draft showreel together.

Showreel Preparation

For this week we were given the task to create a draft showreel, nothing special just something that shows your ideas for the showreel be it a storyboard, screenshots or a  good go and a finalised version. Continuing from last weeks task of looking at previous work i decided that I had nothing from the last 2 years that I feel happy putting in my finished showreel .

I know exactly how  i would like my showreel to pan out but I was told by my tutor never overthink my showreel too much because you end up having either too much work to fit into a small time or the other way were you have spent too much time on one piece which isnt enough for a showreel.

I think now I have an idea on what makes a good showreel and how I should present the showreel to a proffesional standard. With the previoius weeks of how not to make a showreel i pretty confident that my showreel should look and work really well. The showreel will consist of 2 environments one of the environment s been 2 seperate ones put togetether ina western theme, the other been a scene from a movie which is Children Of Men. In between both of these environments I am going to be presenting some props that I think look good enough to go into the showreel, most of the props will be from the western environment so they will look good cluttered together. I want the props in the middle of the showreel because I have noticed when im watching showreels i remember the 1st piece of work and the last, and i know my environments will be my best pieces of work so i want one at the begginning and one at the end.

I will be presenting my draft showreel as a storyboard, I will be using screenshots of WIP and other peoples work as it says i can do in the task and explaining the time of each shot music in the background and what is happening in the shots.

Showreel Justification

For this week we were given the tasks to get into groups based on the subject of intrest e.g. Environment artist, prop artist. We were then told to discuss between us what we thought made a good showreel and a bad showreel, the actual task was to present the ideas in front of our tutor and our class, while presented we talked aboyt the positives and the negatives of the showreels we had presented.

For example all us were agreed on what makes a bad showreel etc too long, no contact details, non textured models and the main one having the wrong music with the work. We all then agreed what we thought was a good showreel when it comes to environment artists. We noticed that in good showreels the music is either non vocal or they dont have any at all, also they either have there contact details at the beggining and end or all the way through out the showreel which we all agreed was really good. The main good thing we can say that what we saw in the showreels we looked at was how they presented the environment, we liked it when the showreel panned through the environment and didnt do it for too long.

I wont put up any links of the good and b ad showreels because you can see them in my previous week blog, which we actually used in the presenttaion too, so would be pointless.

For this weeks blog task we were told to look a previous work that we think we could put in our future showreels and identify the goods and bads of the work. For myself I dont think i have any work from the 1st year that I could put into the showreel, and the only thing i think is even anywhere close to going in my showreel would be the Remake of the Call Of Duty map i did last year for Andreas, although that needs a hell of a lot of work done to it.

After seeing what makes a good showreel I think that my call of duty map would be something i could throw into my showreel when I have done all the ammendments that are needed. I wont be putting anyother work in from the past 2 years beside that piece of work into my showreel, im relying more on this year because its all environments and sum props.

 

As you can see from the image above you can tell its a Call Of Duty map but there is no shadows or any atmosphere in the environment, so for me to make this good enough to put into my showreel I will have to add the right kinda of lighting and shadows and maybe some fog for the distance too because everything looks to plain at the minute. 

I do think that the scene would look good when been panned through so Im defintly going to redo some of the work on this environment so it can go in my showreel

Week 4

For this week we told to look at the area that we wanted to get into the industry and review some showreels and portfolio's. We were told to find good and bad showreel's so we can analyse them and summarise what we liked about the showreels and what we disliked about the showreels.

Below is a showreel of environment artist by the name Alex Mourant who speciales in environment models. All of the models were done In maya and beside the windmill scene at the end everything was rendered in mental ray.

The thing I like about this showreel is how much attention to detail is used on the models, Everything is modelled very cleanly and the texturing for the church and the windmill scene I think is some of the best I have scene, Even the lighting in the scene's is very good maybe not the best I have seen but a lot better than I am at the minute.

I really like this show reel because I think everything works together really well, I think the music in the background compliments the work and makes the showreel look really good.

Below is a showreel from David Lesperance, he is currently working in the games industry but his work is awesome.

The showreel below is probabily my favourite showreel at the minute when it comes to environments. There is some bad points to the showreel which I think is only the music because it makes you lose focus also I dont like how all of shots are just rendered images, i prefer the camera panning around the models but beside that there is not many negatives.

The video itself to me was shocking, I thought the props and environments were some of the best I have seen, at the begginning of the showreel he shows some modular props which look excellent then he moves on to environments which all look really really good.

He uses lighting to the best I have seen in an environment showreel and it's not just the lighting, the modelling and texturing is out of this world, all the models are High res bare in mind but even still probabily one of the best environment showreels I have seen in quite a while.

Below is a showreel from someone called Jake Wright.

This is one of the bad ones I have seen so far and by bad I mean the showreel hasn't been put together really well.

The showreel alone is only 29 seconds long which isn't long enough time to show any kind of good work espcially the amount he trys to fit in to the time frame.

I think the 1st prison scene isn't the greatest when it comes to environment scenes and this is because the lighting does not make any sense at all because there is shadows in some places and then not in some where they should be, also the modelling and texturing isn't the greatest I have seen in a showreel and when that scene has finished he puts up animation which takes up most of the time and doesn't really show much of the environment, which annoyed me because he says he's an environment artist.

The main thing I did like about the showreel was the music, the music worked well with the animation but not the prison scene at the begginning, I think personally that alot of work needs to be put into this showreel and a lot more models need to be added to make the showreel last alot longer than 29 seconds long.

After reseraching good and bad showreels I started looking at website portfoilio's because there is a lot of good environment artists that haven't got showreel videos.

Below is a link to environment artist called Alex Galizun who I really like because he has wide spread of different environments that I think all look really good. He doesn't stick to the same kind of environment e.g grimy environments, clean environments he broadens his skill which allows him to model good looking environments.

He does only do small environments but the they all do look really nice and have a really good atmosphere about them e.g the iceyapex scene he has modelled does make you feel cold when you look at it which is what I like to see in environments.

I also like the layout of his website, its easy to find what im looking for and every link works which may sound stupid but on some 3d websites when you click a link nothing loads, so he obvioulsy keeping his site up to date.

http://alexgaluzin.com/

My final website portfolio is by someone called Charlene Dunn

As soon as you enter his website he has a big video of  the latest game he has worked on which is Red Dead Redemption which made me think this person must be good.

I then looked at his gallery and I must admit I wasnt impressed by it at all. I dont know if this is because some of the games he has worked on were on the older consoles so I expected more, but then I went further down the gallery and some of his latest 3D work wasnt the best.

I mean for someone who has worked in the games industry and worked on one of the best selling games this year his portfolio wasnt great at all which actually shocked me. She doesn't present his work well she just seems to do random renders and not even consider the lighting, and also a lot of the shots are from in game which I dont think makes a good portfolio.

My honest opinion is for someone who is in the industry now working on big selling games should have a better online portfolio than that.

http://www.charzamm.com/

Week 3 Start

In this assignment we have been told that this module is a module that is getting us ready for the games industry, and that we will be taught the most important things to know before we leave for the industry.

Our tutor told us that we will be researching the area we want to focus on in the games industry, how to setup a good CV and also how to show our portfolio on show reels.

For the first 2 weeks of this module we havent really had any lessons on Proffesional Practice but thats because we have been doing presentations and other stuff that was more important thats why this is my first entry for this module.

For this week we were told to research the area that we want to work on in the games industry. I've known for a quite a while now that I want to be an environment artist and this is because of last years assignments.

During last year we had assignments that allowed us to create props, environments and also vechiles and out of every assignment I did i really enjoyed doing the RTR environement.

Below is a picture of the environment i created for RTR, after doing this environment i really wanted to develop my skills so that my next environment work is a lot better than the last one. because there was a lot that wasn't that great.

Through out the week I have been looking at environment artist that have influenced me, and i came across Rashad Redic who was the environement artist for Fallout 3. When looking at fallout 3 environments i was really amazed by how realistic they looked, below is a photo of one of the environments Rashad Redic worked on.

I was also looking for the environment artist for the Modern Warfare franchise but i couldn't find a specific artist, but thats the kind of environments that I am intrested in, the environments that are blocked off for a teamdeath match.

I am hoping for next week to have a few environment artists names that have worked on games that I am intrested in and I would also like to try and find out if any of the artists have a blog or a website where I can learn more about them.

Proffessional Practice In The Games Industry