Last Post

Just a quick little ending post about what I have done over the holiday before starting third year. I have decided to move over my blog to amberjamieson.wix.com/gameartblog for my final year so all posts I make from now on will be on this website.

Over the holiday I didn't have much time to do a lot of game art related things due to me getting my first job at the age of 20 (I know its appalling) at the retail store NEXT. It was an interesting experience and lets just say I have leant how to control my anger and stand up for myself at the right times; I will carry these soft skills over to other game art related things.

Over the holiday I did however make a portfilio website on amberjamieson.weebly.com but after moving my new blog over to Wix I fell in love with their customisation and have recently moved my portfolio over to this website too: amberjamieson.wix.com/portfolio. It was a bit of hassle but I feel that it looks more professional and now my blog and portfolio match. I also made my 2nd set of business cards over the holiday due to the older ones being out of date with website links; however now moving to Wix I'm doing to have to make new ones again. 

I did have sometime to do a photo study as shown below:

I have also being working on revamping a board game I made in year 9 called "Killing spree". 

This is still an on going project; I'm working with my partner and our friends to make it suited to us. I am in charge of all of the art in the game. Here's my character sheet at the moment until I find some time to work on this project a bit more;

After moving back to Leicester I got in touch with Unitemps and got interviewed to be a Brand ambassador, so now I get to work on open days and show potential students around the building and answer any questions they have about Game Art Design at DMU.

I also went to EGX over the holiday with the Games Development Society and got to play a lot of cool new games and talk to developers and industry professionals. I got a lot of feedback from Creative Assembly about my portfolio. However they wanted me to make it tailored more towards AAA work so I'm not 100% sure if i'm going to take their feedback on-board and change my portfolio as of yet.

That's everything for now, to see what I'm working on now check out my new blog (amberjamieson.wix.com/gameartblog).
Cherrio for now.

Sin City presentation 2.0

As promised I am doing another presentation on Sin City as if I haven't done enough projects on it already; nevertheless I have finally decided to do my presentation on the second Sin City film; Sin City: A dame to kill for. So I have watched and taken notes on the film so far and I really like it; its not as good as the first but they had a lot of problems with timelines in this one, due to their being 3 separate stories in one and they all happen at different times. Despite the confusing timeline the film is really enjoyable and I am glad I have chosen to do my presentation on it; now I just have to watch it 20 more times. 

The films colours do seem to correlate however I feel that the new one uses colours more for visual appeal where as the first film used them for hidden meaning. There are some new colours used in the  film and I do have some theories of what they might mean.

Firstly Orange:

Orange is featured on Marv's pills, 'Kadie's Bar' sign and Sally's Hair.

• Orange can be seen as a fiery colour so it could mean that it is fierce or dangerous.
• "Orange offers emotional strength in difficult times. It helps us to bounce back from disappointments and despair, assisting in recovery from grief." (1)
• Orange is a self-indulgent colour.
• Orange represents Adventure and risk taking it also promotes physical confidence and enthusiasm. This links well to 'Kadie's Bar'.

Sally

Pink:

Pink is only used on Sally's lingerie.

• Pink is often referred to as being sexy.
• It is also a very bold and powerful colour, suggesting that she is a strong woman.
• It can also be seen as a calm colour which could show weakness.
• Pink "reassures our emotional energies, alleviating feelings of anger, aggression, resentment, abandonment and neglect." (2) This fits in well to the story of the character the pink could be showing that she has calmed down after a near death experience.

Blue:

Blue is used in the first film when information is being passed, in the new film Ava wears a bright blue coat.

• In the first film blue is also shown if someone is a traitor; this applies to Ava's character.
• "This color is one of trust, honesty and loyalty. It is sincere, reserved and quiet, and doesn't like to make a fuss or draw attention. It hates confrontation, and likes to do things in its own way." (3) Blue in our case could be used contradictory so that people feel as if they can trust Ava even though they cannot.
• Can be seen as being deceitful and spiteful.
• "It can also indicate manipulation, unfaithfulness and being untrustworthy." (4)

Ava

Finally natural colours:

By this I mean unprocessed colours; shown in all of the fire and explosions and in particular Marcy.

• Marcy is shown as the only person which natural skin tones; this could be to show that she is pure. This can also relate to the fire showing that it is also pure.
• It could show that she is full of life and that the darkness of Sin City has not yet gotten to her.

Marcy and Johnny

There is so much more I could research into but I think I am going to start writing my presentation soon or I will end up in a massive Sin City spiral and want to do a 20 minute presentation rather than a 3 minute one.

Cheerio for now.

References:

(1) Judy Scott-Kemmis. The Color Orange. Available: http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-orange.html. Last accessed 30/02/15.

(2)  Judy Scott-Kemmis. The Color Pink. Available: http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-pink.html. Last accessed 30/02/15.

(3) Judy Scott-Kemmis. The Color Blue. Available: http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-blue.html. Last accessed 30/02/15.

(4) Judy Scott-Kemmis. The Color Blue. Available: http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-blue.html. Last accessed 30/02/15.

Sally picture: http://sincity.wikia.com/wiki/Sally

Ava picture: http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/sin-city-a-dame-to-kill-for/238554/sin-city-the-hard-complete-timeline

Marcy and Johnny .gif: http://www.contestofchampions.net/sin-city-vs-sin-city

Sloth ≤ Potato

This week has been a slow one and I am starting to get concerned with the time I have to finish everything; last week I spoke about having an extension on the Off the Map hand in and how I should still be able to work on it over Easter, it has now come to my attention that I might not have enough time to get everything else that needs to be done before that finished. Therefore Alice might not get worked on until we get back to Uni which is a bit worrying.

I also have to think about starting my written task (essay); which I am currently gathering reference for but have not begun typing. I also need to finish redoing my character project and my presentation; which are both in the progress of getting done. Over this holiday I also wanted to get my CV, cover letter and portfolio done so that I could apply to internships over summer; unfortunately that looks unlikely to get done now as its not my priority. This week has been an intense start to tennis and jogging up hills (as Leicester is just flat). I am exhausted and finding it hard to motivate myself to work after this; I will sort out my routine soon and should be able to not fall asleep after just 2 hours of jogging and tennis.

Death by tennis

Lets get onto the character project; I have been working on getting the new shapes into my model and I have now moved onto putting the alphas on the model. The alphas have been playing up but I have finally fixed the problem by adding extra padding on the texture and resetting the normals in 3DS Max; heres what it looks like so far:

If I am honest I'm not very happy with they way it looks at the moment; obviously it still needs the modelling to be finished and the texture to be fixed. In plain terms I think he looks like a retarded potato...

Hopefully I can fix this soon and move onto the texturing.
I still have a lot on my to do list so he is far from finished but that's it for now update you soon;
Cheerio for now.


References:
Weird Alice .gif: http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles/artist-creates-incredibly-derpy-disney-gifs

Goosing around

So another week has been and gone; Alas Christmas is over and I can no longer move with out help from a crane. But it didn't stop me having a lovely night out on Sunday, but we will get to that later. The holiday is drawing to a close and the dinosaur I promised is no where to be seen, the only thing I have managed to do is learn to knit (my scarf is going strong and I might even get it done by this time next year!). However I am not going to beat myself up over un-modelled dinosaurs because at the end of the day its my holiday and all I have done so far is tidy up and stress over Christmas so I feel that some time off is well due.

Over Christmas I have been trying out my new camera, its not terrible for the price. Here's some pictures I have taken in the last week.

Nothing fancy but I'm not a photographer, I just want to have photos to evoke memories in the future. For Christmas I got a mass of books; The Guardians of the Galaxy artbook, Alien Isolation artbook, WallE artbook and a couple comics to help me procrastinate even more. So don't be surprised if my work in the next term ends up being all syfy orientated. 

I decided to do a later post than usual so I could write about my lovely Sunday night outing with my family; My parents got complimentary tickets to go and see the pantomime Mother Goose at The Hackney Empire. (http://www.hackneyempire.co.uk/3463/shows/mother-goose.html). You may be wondering why we got free tickets for the best seats in the house, well that would be because my parents are friends with the wonderful Clive Rowe, star of the show. The inside of the theatre was absolutely beautiful and made with true craftsmanship; it is truly inspirational. The show was amazing and brought me back to my childhood when my parents would take me and my sister to see pantos when we were little. Clive's performance as Mother goose was outstanding and the singing in the entire show was extremely impressive. The show also incorporated lots of modern day references including lots of south London charm which made me feel right at home. The show was mesmerising and I must admit I got caught up and ended up joining in with the "it's behind you"'s; I wonder if you incorporated the same elements as you do in a panto into a game, whether or not it would work? Well that's one to think about for the future. 

You might notice that that picture is taken from the stage; well after the show Clive met us round by the stage door and gave us a behind the scenes tour; an of course we had to take a selfie!

Me, my mum and sister looking as beautiful as ever. After having a nose through Clive's room and his outfits, we gave him a lift home and had a few drinks round his. I never knew we had so much in common. He loves comics, video-games and Utopia (the best TV show ever), he even lent me his copy of watchmen to read, Clive is such a lovely humble guy and I look forward to seeing him again and I can lend him my copy of The killing Joke (One of my favourite Batman comics).

 Update you again soon after the new year when I am back in my freezing cold flat up north,
Cheerio for now.

Four days remaining

So a week has flown past and I have achieved soooo much! No wait... that's a lie...
I haven't managed to get much done this week so this is going to be a short update.
Since coming back to my chaotic house I have been put on cleaning duty and have spent the majority of the week helping my mum sort out the house for Christmas; The decorations still aren't up and my mum has bought no presents or food! So lets see how this Christmas turns out. I have however managed to finally grasp how to knit! Hallelujah! I've only messed up a couple times by dropping stitches and doing pealing instead of knitting; but for a first attempt I don't think its too bad! But have a look for yourself:

Still got 2 more balls after that one, wish me luck!

I have also booked and bought my coach tickets for the VFX festival; I also need to sort out my online portfolio and get some business cards printed ready, so hopefully I will get those done soon, if and when I get some spare time. 

I have also managed to talk myself into buying a camera, I couldn't resist. It is half price and decent for general pictures and texture gathering, so I thought it was about time I got one. 

It even comes with a bag, SD card and screen protector; so it is very good for the price.

Hopefully it will get here before Christmas so I can take lovely photos of all of my family and friends.

Cheerio, 

I will update you next week with hopefully more things to show.

References:
Camera Jpeg: http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/national-deal/gg-groupon-goods-global-gmb-h-2011-56/52122758