Unreal Tournament 3 Bio Rifle

Before playing a game I search through the website looking at characters and features. I especially like the designs of the weapons used in the game. What really caught my eye was the design of the Bio rifle. Mainly because it looks so complicated to model and the features look so animalistic, making it look perfect for a game set in the future. The colors and detailing really make more of an impact on the shape I think making it look more powerful and heavy.

les triplettes de belleville

I love the designs of the characters as they remind me of the style of caricatures. The bikers features are completely out of scale especially his nose and the bum shaped leg carves really make him look quite mutated and a lot older. the mother is also blown out of proportion making her look like the grumpy, bossy dwarf like character. the design of her is a striking similarity to the landlady character from the Mr Bean animated series.

Task 4

Swot Analysis
Freelance
Jim manning

Strengths

Working in Hampshire Jim Manning is a 2D, 3D freelance character designer. He is skilled in 3D modelling including rigging, texture creation, editing, postproduction, animation and web design. He is also skilled with many other film editing software such as after effects and premiere pro. Manning has had 11 years of experience working in this type of field where he has worked for a computer games company for 6 years. At the moment as well as solo freelancing he is the head artist at a 3d animatics company in London.

A lot of his work that he has produced is featured like a portfolio on his website at http://www.giembi.com/Home.php
The website serves its purpose and advertises his range of work. The font used on his website is highly visible to the naked eye, with the white font over the black background, all information is very clear. Manning is featured on other freelance websites, to attract more business, he advertises his own website link.

Weaknesses

His website is very basic and apart from his work it has no real attraction. There are no interactive features or onscreen animations and it looks very similar to many sites. As he works for a 3D animatic company his time spent on his freelance job is limited and may take longer to finish the job.

Company
EA Games

Strengths

Electronic arts, is a global online and in game corporation with multiple development locatons ranging from America, Canada, Germany, Britan, China and Austraila. Each office has the latest design software with a massive team of highly skilled staff for each spercific Job. The characters they design for are used by playstation 3, X box 360, PSP, Nintendo Wii, DS and many other computer consoles. There are numorous types of character design which are focused around four different types of games that EA Develop. These are Action games, Sports such as Madden, The Simms and Casual entertainment. With other multiple competitors, EA is constantly researching and updating characters from each of the four topics, keeping on top and createing newer interestes that will encourage a wider type of audience.

With the high popularity of some of tbe games EA are permanatly being advertised. The main Characters from a game are featured, on posters, Television adverts and in magezines such as PSM3. As well as being advertised on other various websites, EA also have there own fully fuctional website at http://www.ea.com/. It is a brightly coloured, visible informational website with various pictures of game charaters. It markets all of the games with the use trailers, screenshots, previews etc. It can be easily used and it features a search engine to help.

Weaknesses
When working for a large team problems can still accure where studios have to be shut down and large amounts of jobs can be cut are all at once. Although character design is not a problem, many of the EA games are platform games and are dependent on other game companies to design them. leading to limitations in design capabilities, graphics and game performance

When the Character design process has ended there are still other parts of the game that are need to be finished, dilaying the distribution time for the entire team. When fully completed the game has to be released around certain times of the year like christamas. During the sales the costs lower making the games less profitable.

Opportunities

Newer and more realistic army games can be made to recreate a simulation for a solider in training, featuring voice commands and instructional coaching. These simulation games can also be used in other important government fields such as medical and educational training

Threats

When creating a game and selling it it is mandatory to make a profit for the gaming console process to continue.

Task 3

Promoting myself.
There are a several ways in which I could promote myself so my work can be seen by a wide range of people. As I specialize in 3D character design a lot of my final work would be computer based. A good way of advertising my work is by using the world wide web as it is scouted every day. Here I can create a website or blog where I can show a series of pictures of my work. using other popular media sites such as you tube can be useful where I create slide shows. I can also make links for people to click on where they would be redirected to more of features.
Another advantage of character design is that they are all still images and can be printed off. This way my work could be shown by poster, pictoplasma books and any other flat surfaced objects. I can also include some of my final 2D development designs as well as the 3D. Gallery exhibitions are also a good way of promoting my work as interests accrue, I can talk one on one to the client. Business cards can also be given out to potentional customers at animex and game festivals, leading on to further jobs in the future.
My work can be used both in gaming and film. If they are made as motion and sold my design will be continually advertised.

Task 2

As I specize in character design I would want to work at a games or animation company. The reasoning for this is because both of them are wide ranged media industries and I think my work would be best suited around these areas. Companies like these are usually worked by a team of people which I think would suit me better as I like to have ideas thrown at me so I can develop them further.
I would preffer to emigrate and work abroad especially in Canada or America where a lot of studios are based and are continully growing. Some of the companies which interest me at the moment are ubisoft and radical enterainment. Edios have also opened a new facily in montreal.
I have looked at the different websites where jobs are needed throughout the uk and internationally. The two best websites that I have found to be quite useful are

http://www.gamesrecruit.co.uk/GameDesignerJobs.aspx
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/

Although a lot of jobs that I have looked at require some sort of experience.

POLITICAL
As in any job I have to start somewhere and sell myself. If I was to work in England I would like to remain in Yorkshire area, as I am more familiar with it. Media industries are not just set down south any more and are growing everyday throughout the rest England. Video games companies are getting bigger, and more branches are being opened all over. Rockstar games are good example as they have recently opened a studio in Leeds. What I would really like to do is to work abroad where games and animation companies are more common creating a wider range of jobs. This could prove to be more difficult as I would need a visa and the correct documentation

Economics
As I said before I would like to work in a team, I would also have to make business cards to get myself known and attend interviews starting off from a lower position in a company chain. Eventually work my way up through industry. By doing this I will gain more experience and knowledge.

Society.
I would most defiantly want emigrate to either Canada of America as a lot of the popular games companies today are based there. I have visited Toronto twice and deeply enjoyed being there as I found the people to be warm and friendly. I also have close friends of the family living there. For better reasons it would be a lot easier to get to grips people by working in an English speaking society.

Technology
As I want to model 3D objects the technology that I use would have be at the latest standard of software, which could prove to be very expensive for me to buy myself. Some companies use very similar but different programs from others. So if I were to work for them I would think they would have there own facilities. Otherwise if any other 2D design work is requires I would simply use pen a paper and a Photoshop program.

Task 1

My name is Rob Smith

Pros

Maya
Photoshop
Illustrator
Second life
Draw be hand

Cons

Flash
Scripting
Video
Motion graphics and Effects

Conclusion
3D Character and environment designer.

I like to start off by hand sketching several basic images mainly character designs. These consist off drawing it from different views usually front, back and sides of the image. After then develop them more on Photoshop. This includes adding color, shading and touching up any other marks and details. I then continue with Photoshop and line up the edges of the image using the ruler tool so that every part is the same size and then I cut the out. Each image is then imported into a 3D program such as Maya, where I use polygons and modify and extrude them to fit the outlines around the original drawings. Different hyper shades and textures are then added to the object to give color. Finally the whole character is rigged with pipes and joints and is then prepped for movement for animation sequence.

My main influences are brought on from watching films and playing various computer games. I have always had a wide and varied imagination, and like to design 3D objects and character's to be used for short films, games and animations.