Occasionally I get the urge to do actual graphic design. It’s few and far between, but I like how these icons turned out. The home screen isn’t mine because I’m not sure how to easily take a screenshot with an android phone. So I just superimposed my icons on a blank home screen.

   I’ve been enjoying dark backgrounds with light text/icons lately. The Tron-ish style also appeals to me. So I combined my current interests into these icons. Just wanted to share how they turned out (even though they were really simple to do). 

   I know that I shouldn’t let these little distractions take me away from my UDK scene, but sometimes it’s good to get an idea out of your system. 

Driving through the night, heading back home. Quick sketch of the road before me.

I love some of the characteristics that were hit upon that makes video games stand out from most other artwork. Especially the discussion of forced interaction with an audience and how it reinforces the narrative. I’ve always enjoyed street art and installations for this same reason. To be able to engage with the audience in their environment creates a compelling experience.

   Towards beginning of the semester, my friend and then coworker Andrew approached me to create art for his masters thesis. His thesis was going to be presented in a game format that centered around the theme of recursion (a mathematics technique, thus used in programming).

   He went on to describe this as a 2D “side-scrolling” game. The environment was to be predominantly mayan ruins, while the character was to be an exploring robot. The character was to navigate through the ruins based on open paths eventually leading to the treasure. The gameplay was suppose to mimic the process of recursion. I went to work on creating the mayan background using mostly hand painting techniques. I believe there was only one image of a rock texture that I used to break up the surface and add some random noise.

   Even though I have yet to see the finalized version of the game, it was a fun, little side project for me. It gave me practice building an environment without much use of found textures. You can check out the finished environments below with the robot and treasure. (The interior of the temple was built in pieces so they could be assembled into differentiating paths).

   I found this video extremely informative. As much as I know about cameras, I am unhappy about how little I know about using a flash. I never understood what flash sync or high speed flash sync was until I saw this video. So here I am spreading the wealth. By the end of the year I plan on purchasing my first flash and grappling my lack of flash experience directly.

   Also, we (as in Oklahoma and the rest of the Midwest) have been in blizzard-like conditions for the past four days. I have been able to sink a lot of time into researching what my next camera should be. I will update my blog with a post detailing why choosing a new camera is no easy matter. I’m hoping to ultimately make a quick decision and order it soon. All of this and more coming soon!

   So I have finally finished all the photos for Lance’s calendar! I had some that turned out really well! I am glad that I was given this opportunity. I was able to take a shot with portraiture (which I never really wanted to), and now I even consider doing more portraits in the future. I’m just glad that I can add these shots to my portfolio and hopefully get more work out of it!

   Also, I’m pretty sure that I’ve made up my mind to get the Nikon D7000. The only reason for me stating this is that I have an Amazon wishlist of all the accessories I want to buy for the Nikon already! Well I’m trying to decide what would be the best accessories to get for a wedding. Besides the camera obviously, I’m considering a prime lens, a flash, a telephoto lens, and possibly a battery grip (not really needed, but nice for the vertical functionality!). I’ll have to see where my funds are and what will give me the most bang for my buck.

   Lastly, I added an even newer music player to the right side of the page! I’m glad grooveshark made this cool widget. I’ll update it periodically with music that I’m listening to. For now, it consists of select songs from Enigma. I find these songs particularly haunting/mesmerizing. It really helps me zone out by transferring my thoughts to a completely different universe as these songs create lush soundscapes within my mind. I hope someone else can appreciate!

   So I’m obviously not a programmer. I can’t read code or even begin to comprehend what the numbers/letters mean. What I am good at is googling. Hence it took me an hour to embed this little music player to the right, and damn it, I’m going to write a post about it. It will probably be updated every now and then with what songs/music has been stuck in my head. Mostly I think it will be relaxing music that I listen to while working on art. My productive music if you will. After all, music is a big part of how I get in the groove and really focus on what I’m creating.

   So the first go round is by a musician I just discovered. General Fuzz. All 5 of his albums are free on his website. Feel free to visit his website HERE if you enjoy downtempo music to zone out to. Give him props and spread his name around.

So at work we have started this new game with a loose project name of “Energy.” Since our lovely game/instructional designer parted ways, we only have a few key elements really designed. One of these includes the environment, which is all the artists really need to get started on some basic props. The game will take place in a prairie, grassland setting (Oklahoma/Texas). There will be oil equipment, a farmhouse, barn, and the usual Oklahoma-like vegetation.

Having been more unfamiliar with normal maps than Gabe, I’ve been taking my time to really understand the best way to use them. I’ve achieved some pretty good results, though it could be better! It’s been really fun learning how to make “next gen” art assets. I believe the models that I have completed have been a valiant effort, but with practice, I know that I can make them more realistic.

My biggest complaint is that we are not going for a real style in our game. I know the setting is suppose to be authentic (which is a buzz word that researchers in the academia setting like to throw around too often), but I would like to do something more along the lines of Pixar or Team Fortress 2. The style of these two are unmistakable. It would be awesome for a school to look at one of our educational video games and immediately know who developed it. This is unfortunately of little concern to academia. To them, research and findings play an important role to the success of the game.

I could rant about all the little things that bother me with our process or what our company thinks a game should be, but that will have to be for another post. Regardless of how I feel about developing in an academic setting, I’m glad to be given this opportunity to increase my skill. Here are a few renders of some of the objects I’ve created. I’ll make an update once I have a handful of new objects to show off!

So late in the fall (after Noodling), I decided to help out Gabe Miller who was developing a short web series titled “Ghost Car.” We shot over two weekends. It started in late September and wrapped the first week in October. It was a great project, and I’m glad that Gabe decided to work on this short series then dive head first into a feature film that he was writing. A smaller, condensed project such as this allows one to gain more technical know-how without being overwhelmed by the stress of larger productions. I’m hoping to gear up a few small projects like this next year.

For the span of the shoot, I had several roles. I started off more like a PA, operating the boom and handling the gear. Soon that changed to script supervisor. I had to keep track of continuity, decide which scenes to cut, and condense multiple shots into one. I even got the opportunity to be in the film as an extra! I make a little cameo as a druggie in the disgusting mobile home. During the final day of the shoot, Gabe was getting ready for his acting part in the film, so I was basically assistant director. I helped speed through the scene and compose some of the shots. That is probably my favorite part of assisting with films. I guess the technical term would be cinematographer. When someone tells me the action of a scene, I’m already assembling the shot in the form of a film in my head. It is sort of the same when I’m reading a book. As I absorb the story that is written, I’m switching shots and panning in and out of the action. This is going on in my head even if the book makes no indication that the point of view has changed at all.

I hope to get more work behind the camera in upcoming productions. I want to practice and see my work on the screen. If I cannot get any practice as a cinematographer, then I’ll have to wait until early next year when I upgrade my camera. Maybe I’ll start thinking of small productions that I could create and assemble a crew. Who knows!

Gabe is going to be working on post-production during the month of October. I’ll probably post the new trailer once it is finished and provide an update on the project. Until then, enjoy the current trailer!

So I just saw this interesting presentation about a system and lens that allows the user to gather an image with a multitude of focal data. The original story can be found at PetaPixel. After capturing the “image,” the user can then affect the focal point once the data is gathered into the computer.

There are pros and cons to this. This would be great for those times when a subject is caught in the perfect pose, but just slightly out of focus. Being able to snap the focus back to the appropriate subject would save many a photo that are almost perfect. There are many of my set photos that had to be taken quickly to ensure that I capture the moment, but I would then find out that the focus was slightly off due to the quickness that the photos needed to be taken.

The cons are that this could remove and element of photography that is vital to how I experience it. One of the favorite aspects of photography is the thrill of finally sitting at the computer and observing the images. I like to analyze what went right or wrong, and then apply those findings next time I go out with my camera. This is so I can build upon my successes and failures. Taking the chance of failure out of photography ruins it for me. It is about learning, adapting, and progressing forward.

Sure one could say the same for everything that the DSLR brought that the film SLR could not do. Despite how automatic the DSLR can become, I prefer to use it in mostly its manual mode. I’d really prefer for companies to think about adding options to the camera user at the moment of taking the photos and less about options when in post. Maybe I’m just being stubborn, lol.

In the end, I suppose it is the person behind the camera that really makes the difference. Either way, this presentation helped inspire my mind about what photography means to me.