An Interesting Occurrence

I was in the city the other weekend and on the way back home on the train I noticed something unusual. In a carriage full of people, everyone was listening to music, playing on their phone or tablet, and some were even on a laptop. Everyone except the man sitting in the row next to me. He was just sitting there twirling his thumbs. It's 2013 and this man didn't have a device to keep himself busy?!

But then that thought had me reassessing how the general population lives and what we perceive to be normal. While yes we are living in a constantly evolving world where technology is expanding and becoming more and more popular, do we really need to preoccupy ourselves from the outside world in every waking moment?

I'm probably the worst person to be commenting on this. As I type this article I'm surrounded by a TV, Mac, Xbox, iPad, iPhone and even a 3DS. Who am I to cast down criticism on others for doing exactly what I do? Hell, I've even been known to be checking Facebook on the computer when deciding to go to bed, only to then be on Facebook again on my phone.

Video Game Design Course - 3D Modelling

I've said in the past that I'd document how things progress in my video game course as a way for me to look back and reflect on where I've come from, plus if it shows others out there that anyone can do this, from knowing nothing to releasing a retail game, then all the better.

This week we've finally gotten around to 3D modelling. We're just doing a basic male model in 3ds Max during the video tutorials with the aim being for us to use that as a platform to build from as all the students begin to create characters for their respective games. The experience so far I think has been the most enjoyable of the course. After all of the theoretical lessons and setbacks as far as changing curriculum goes, I'm finally seeing an actual physical representation of my work and it feels great.

Up to this stage we've worked on the necessary Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) to get it out of the way, as well as some level and world prototyping plus just generally getting used to the various software we need to use. To say it's been slow going is an understatement, but that's understandable seeing as it's really the colleges first year running this particular course and I'm one of the lucky guinea pigs. 3D modelling is a blessing now all of that is behind me.

At this stage I've created the mesh and I'm currently in the process of unwrapping and applying textures, which I'm not exactly looking forward. I can imagine it being a lot of work, but then again I'm not exactly expecting to reproduce a model as detail as a Master Chief for example. After this I'll be working on completing a weapon. Anything past that seems too far in the distance right now and if there's one thing I'm learning, it's focus.

Until next time,

Scott

GTA V Timelapse Screenshots

While editing the GTA V timelapse I took some screenshots of this beautiful game we all know and love. It continues to astonish me just how much detail is present in the latest iteration of the franchise and it really is no wonder that development time for the title was five years. Even with the six month delay from the initial release date, I am more than pleased with the result and I for one am glad they took the time to really polish this game up to show off everything it has to offer.

While opinions on the storyline narrative have been somewhat divided, nobody can deny that Rockstar has created one of the best open worlds to date, rivaling the likes of Skyrim in recent memory. Click on the pictures below for larger versions.