First Lecture (Project introduction)
The first lecture introduced the topic of this project and had some interesting information about the origins of video games, and some arguments, that appeared throughout. Having been studying board games, and having briefly looked at Senet - the first recorded game (3500 BC), it was of no shock to discover that Games had been around for over five thousand years. But William Higgan Botham in a university made the first video game in 1958. The game, Table Tennis for Two was initially constructed for military purposes. Looking at its design and visual output, there are striking similarities between Table Tennis for Two and both the early video game Pong and sonar technology.
Another interesting fact that immerged from this lecture was that it was only after 2001 that video games were recognized by academia on the whole. This is slightly surprising - given that the Table Tennis for Two was born from such roots. However personally, I feel that it is a sign of the post-modern era that we live in, allowing many to use film and video games as art form, beyond its simple purpose as a movie or game.
Marie Claire - the lecturer, brought an interesting argument to light also. Many observers and philosophers believe that Video Games are very much in a young state. If a film was used for comparison- Birth of a Nation (DW Griffiths, 1915) is said to be a description of Video Games at this point in time.
As a gamer that has been part of the evolution of gaming, it is obvious that games are progressing at an alarming rate. With software soon to be released, that allows a player to interact with its environment or talk with characters, more and more video games are growing, becoming more bold in game play and photorealistic. It is impossible to say what standard that Videogames will be at in the next five years. Perhaps it is this statement that ultimately means that I agree with the common opinion that games are at a child state at the moment. For Video Games - unlike films, continue to grow and flourish with creativity.
Alumni Lecture
Chris Goodswen - a 3D character artist, was the guest speaker for the afternoon. Having graduated in 2008, he had proceeded to a Masters in Professional Game Development at Abertay University. His time at NUCA and Abertay were both intriguing to listen to. His origins were rather humble (a sketcher in his free time, was stuck in a ''boring'' job) and he had no previous experience with Photoshop or any of the 3D tools. Chris's interests were in 2D character design and he studied artists such as Syd Mead, Fang Zhu and Aaron Symms.
Key areas Chris felt were important to enable one to progress in the industry, from his Under Graduate year, were to have a specialism (Character, environment, etcetera) and to have an incredible understanding of anatomy. As stated in the earlier lecture - with video games flourishing and becoming more realistic, the art behind it too must reach those levels. The final skill that is needed to progress as an artist within a game is the ability to research whilst self-motivated. Having spent 90% of his time researching by his own admission, it is clear that this is important to substantiate the realistic drawings.
Chris's description of his time at Abertay was much more reflective of the mechanics behind a development team. Having initially worked in a group of 2, slowly progressing up to 16, team dynamic played a huge part of each games success. Being able to communicate between different disciplines (animators, programmers/ coders, artists, etc.) to construct a final product is an integral part of the games industry.
At the end of his experiences at Abertay, Chris found that he was more confident in his abilities, had contacts in the games industry (and also had good friends working in studios) and found that he still had much to learn. Now working freelance, he has applied for positions in many videogames studios - but as with all employment at this time, is finding it difficult to get a position he wants (loved in interviews - but 600 people applying for 5 jobs or such).
(His website: http://www.tincow.net/)
Goodwin, Chris (2010)[Lecture on his time at NUCA, Friday 8th October]
The first lecture introduced the topic of this project and had some interesting information about the origins of video games, and some arguments, that appeared throughout. Having been studying board games, and having briefly looked at Senet - the first recorded game (3500 BC), it was of no shock to discover that Games had been around for over five thousand years. But William Higgan Botham in a university made the first video game in 1958. The game, Table Tennis for Two was initially constructed for military purposes. Looking at its design and visual output, there are striking similarities between Table Tennis for Two and both the early video game Pong and sonar technology.
Another interesting fact that immerged from this lecture was that it was only after 2001 that video games were recognized by academia on the whole. This is slightly surprising - given that the Table Tennis for Two was born from such roots. However personally, I feel that it is a sign of the post-modern era that we live in, allowing many to use film and video games as art form, beyond its simple purpose as a movie or game.
Marie Claire - the lecturer, brought an interesting argument to light also. Many observers and philosophers believe that Video Games are very much in a young state. If a film was used for comparison- Birth of a Nation (DW Griffiths, 1915) is said to be a description of Video Games at this point in time.
As a gamer that has been part of the evolution of gaming, it is obvious that games are progressing at an alarming rate. With software soon to be released, that allows a player to interact with its environment or talk with characters, more and more video games are growing, becoming more bold in game play and photorealistic. It is impossible to say what standard that Videogames will be at in the next five years. Perhaps it is this statement that ultimately means that I agree with the common opinion that games are at a child state at the moment. For Video Games - unlike films, continue to grow and flourish with creativity.
Alumni Lecture
Chris Goodswen - a 3D character artist, was the guest speaker for the afternoon. Having graduated in 2008, he had proceeded to a Masters in Professional Game Development at Abertay University. His time at NUCA and Abertay were both intriguing to listen to. His origins were rather humble (a sketcher in his free time, was stuck in a ''boring'' job) and he had no previous experience with Photoshop or any of the 3D tools. Chris's interests were in 2D character design and he studied artists such as Syd Mead, Fang Zhu and Aaron Symms.
Key areas Chris felt were important to enable one to progress in the industry, from his Under Graduate year, were to have a specialism (Character, environment, etcetera) and to have an incredible understanding of anatomy. As stated in the earlier lecture - with video games flourishing and becoming more realistic, the art behind it too must reach those levels. The final skill that is needed to progress as an artist within a game is the ability to research whilst self-motivated. Having spent 90% of his time researching by his own admission, it is clear that this is important to substantiate the realistic drawings.
Chris's description of his time at Abertay was much more reflective of the mechanics behind a development team. Having initially worked in a group of 2, slowly progressing up to 16, team dynamic played a huge part of each games success. Being able to communicate between different disciplines (animators, programmers/ coders, artists, etc.) to construct a final product is an integral part of the games industry.
At the end of his experiences at Abertay, Chris found that he was more confident in his abilities, had contacts in the games industry (and also had good friends working in studios) and found that he still had much to learn. Now working freelance, he has applied for positions in many videogames studios - but as with all employment at this time, is finding it difficult to get a position he wants (loved in interviews - but 600 people applying for 5 jobs or such).
(His website: http://www.tincow.net/)
Goodwin, Chris (2010)[Lecture on his time at NUCA, Friday 8th October]
I found the lecture interesting and I related to some aspects of the talk (inexperienced with some areas of software, etc.) but found it somewhat daunting in some areas (the amount of sheer work that had to put into the master’s degree and the lack of jobs in the industry). But still despite this I am not going to let it damp my own enthusiasm for the course and the subject, so I shall take some areas of the lecture (notability the focus on knowing every area of anatomies to be a good character designer, having to be able to research well and work in teams) and use to improve myself to hopefully be able to reach that level at the end of the three years.
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