The Zepplin

Whilst snooping through phlegms blog i came across this photo of a graffiti piece that phlegm has done as part of his time lapse video ( a sped up video of him doing the graffiti).
This image caught my attention because of the angles used in the photography of this make the image look like it is on a flat canvas when it is done on a 3D wall environment. This interested me as phlegm obviousily started this image with this in mind and he has done a good job of achieving this effect especialy between the right and center walls.
Also the detail that phlegm introduces into his graffiti work is astounding and realy pulls you into the imagry to look for what symbols and textures he has created, this is unusualy with free hand graffiti art as most graffiti will have large areas of block colour and may include some shading and 3 dimensional effects but not normaly a vast amout of detail.  

UCAS Uni Choises

University of Derby
Course Title - Computer games modelling and animation
Course Level - BA Honours
Entry Requirements - 240 UCAS points

Description

It's a degree concentrating mainly on the production of art related assets for computer games. You will learn traditional core skills alongside industry standard practice in modelling, texturing and animation.  This will be encouraged on by using real time engines to demonstrate your work within a gaming context. As in industry, you'll use your skills collaboratively. You'll create game content in teams as well as getting the opportunity to work with programmers from the Computer games programming course

You will get the opportunity to develop your understanding of games as a visual medium, technical theory of game art production, and the relationship between art and gameplay mechanics

Type of Work

Stage 1

·         2D digital techniques

·         Computer games modelling

·         Game design for artists

·         Intro to 3d modelling

·         Intro to animation for games artists

·         Professional studies

·         Visual studies 1 + 2

Stage 2

·         Applied drawing and visualisation

·         Character development and animation

·         Computer games studies

·         Professional studies through game art development

·         Real time rendering

Stage 3

·         Advanced lighting and rendering techniques

·         Independent studies for game artists

·         Issues in games

·         Professional practice for games artists

Why I would like this course

Animation that focuses on the main industry I wish to pursue a career in , and offers indepth 3d experimentation , application and knowledge

UCAS Uni Choices

De Montford University
Course Title - Games art design
Course Level - BA Honours
Entry Requirements - 240 UCAS points

Description

• Critical Games Studies is the analytical study of computer games, focusing on significant and influential games, and relating computer games to other media and culture
• Game Production is the practical exploration of content creation, including character, environment and vehicle modelling, and using game engines for level creation
• Visual Design develops essential game art skills, such as life drawing, sculpting, painting, idea generation and visualisation.

Type of work

The games design curriculum focuses on content creation with three distinct themes:

•Game Production covers the practical exploration of content creation, including 3D modelling, character design, environment design and working in collaborative teams to produce complete, playable game projects

•Visual Design develops fundamental art skills, such as life drawing and digital painting. Artwork is developed using a range of traditional and digital tools and techniques

•Critical Game Studies uses a combination of online Web 2.0 and real-life guest lectures and seminars to help you develop an understanding of the significance of game culture, art, technology and business/industry.

Why i would like this course
Focuses on the main industry in which I would like to have a career and on a more traditional art basis rather than completely computerised rendering it focuses more on the concept art and character art as appose to the rendering and movement of those objects/ characters

UCAS Uni Choises

Sheffield Hallam
Course Title - Animation
Course Level - BA Honours
Entry Requirements - 240 UCAS points

Description

Animation plays an important role in a range of media including film, television, entertainment software and the internet.

It is a widely used advertising tool, and the media industry is always looking for new content to capture the imagination of viewers.

You develop your skills in;

 • concept art • designing • modelling • texturing • rigging • animating • post-production.

We have a strong history of media production, ranging from fine art and graphic design to film making and interactive media. Our state-of-the-art workshops have specialist equipment, including the latest industry software and hardware, film production equipment and modelling facilities.

You gain experience in animation techniques, which includes;

• traditional methods such as stop frame animation – used in films such as Wallace and Gromit

• Flash animation – used on the web and in interactive gaming

• 3D computer animation – used by companies such as Dreamworks and Pixar, and games software companies such as Codemasters and Sony

You learn to use digital animation software packages such as;

• 3D Studio Max • Maya • Zbrush • Houdini • MotionBuilder and digital compositing. Our editing software includes • After-effects • Shake • FinalCut Pro • AVID • Pro Tools.

We also have a facility for standard and super 16mm origination on film. You play an important role in producing at least three short animations.

Type of work

Year one modules

• introduction to technologies and equipment • animation techniques • development and delivery of digital content • cultural and ethical impact of digital technologies • contemporary animation and media practice • animation and moving image • specialism

Year two modules

• theories of creative practice • new media • film/video theory • critical methods • drawing, rendering and creative realisation

Year three modules

• creative practice • dissertation • professional placement (subject to availability) • animation/film making workshops • collaborative projects

Why i would like this course
Animation is one of the key areas I have been thinking of a career in and this course offers and all round animation experience not just focusing on game s but the other industries as well such as TV, film and web.

UCAS Uni Courses

Sheffield Hallam
Course Title - Games Design
Course Level - BA(Honours)
Entry Requirements - 240 UCAS points

Description

As a games designer you combine the traditional arts of graphic design, character animation and story development with fields such as 3D modelling, simulation and interactivity.

Games design is about combining and using these creative practices to produce exciting products that are fun to play. It involves thinking of game ideas, and creating prototypes and game elements that will feature in the finished product.

This course is for people with artistic talents wanting to enter the games, graphics or multimedia industries. You can become involved in these creative areas and develop your knowledge of the industry.

• develop key skills such as visual communication, problem solving and career management

• learn to use the latest software including 3D modelling packages, game engines and graphics tools

• gain experience of developing game prototypes and graphics and animation sequences for industry standard platforms

Games companies help deliver special sessions that focus on the latest developments in games design. They also give you insights into the games industry and career advice that only practising professionals can offer.

We make sure you are employable after you graduate. As well as gaining the skills and knowledge needed for a career in the games industry, you build a portfolio of work, which will be important to prove your talents to potential employers.

Type of work

Year one modules

• principles and practices of game design • design processes • digital animation • developing prototypes • project work

Year two modules

• game design and development • advanced graphics and animation • multimedia and digital video for DVDs • project work • option module

Year three modules

• show-reels and prototypes • advanced animation and special effects • project management • understanding the game development industry • project work • option module

Why i would enjoy this course
This is an all rounder course that covers more than just 1 section of games and art which would give me a broader scope of knowledge and skills.

UCAS Uni Choices

Sheffield Hallam
Course Title  - Film and Visual Effects
Course Level - BA(Honours)
Entry Requirements - 240 UCAS points


Description

Advances in technology have made special effects, such as computer-generated imagery, more readily available across moving image disciplines, including film, video and computer software.

This course builds on your artistic ability and gives you the core skills to use emerging and future technologies. These technologies are essential in producing successful visual effects in film and associated industries.

You develop the technical skills to use the most up-to-date camera techniques. You also learn to use industry standard animation and digital compositing software such as Autodesk Maya and Adobe After Effects to produce original and professional standard work.

One of the key elements of the course is that you are closely linked and interact with students from other courses including games design, animation and digital media production. This gives you excellent opportunities to showcase your skills and talent in fun and challenging ways.

We support this practical experience with contextual studies. This gives you the knowledge and ability to become critically responsive, allowing you to evaluate and ultimately improve the quality of your own productions.

You play an important role in producing at least three short films. This enables you to build your show reel as a filmmaker. You gain key skills in areas such as visualisation and developing projects through collaboration.

The course teaches across the genres of fiction, documentary and experimental film. It encourages cross-fertilisation of ideas, innovation and originality. We emphasise production, and focus on independence and creating new kinds of cinema and moving image.

Type of Work

Year one

• introduction to special effects • film making technologies • the film industry and contemporary practice • practical projects • understanding the media industry

Year two

• practical projects • contextual lectures and mentoring • theories of creative practice • critical methods • research and investigative methods

Year three

• planning and organising creative projects • special effects/film making workshops • collaborative work • dissertation

Why i would like this course

Apart from gaming, films are another of a keen interest of mine and I always have to see all new films that have been release. I can be very critical of the experience and visuals these pieces of cinema can deliver and have always wondered how you would create visual effects in live action footage.

Blog Revamped



Old Blog Design

The above image is a screenshot of the original style of my blog. I think that this design was not exactily fitting the purpose and style of the work i am looking into. The template i used applied a semi transparent backdrop behind the posts and gave my blog a blue grey template as default, i edited this to have a different page background (the paint splatter effect) which was visible behind some text outside of the main post and i also chaged the title font and colour to fit this background. After reviewing the style of some of the blogs im am following it lead me to think that some sections of my blog needed adapting to make it more easily legible for the reader and to suit the style of the work i enjoy.
i decided to ;
- change the default theme to a simpler theme, with a plain and darker backdrop (this is to make the posts and images stand out to the eye and to allow me to apply a contrasting colour for the text which will help with legibilty.
- change the colour palet for the theme of my blog. i decided on a dark grey and orange because it gave a modern look for my blog and it fitted nicely with the avatar i had chosen.
- keep the fonts and blog title the same as they were already easy to read and fitting for the style of the blog.

this new theme also applied a outline around all the images i have posted which seperates them from the page even more and fits with the style of the blog nicley.

 

New Blog Design


Here is a picture of the blog after i applied the updates stated above.

a review of blogging

after using this blog as an output for my work, ideas, reviews and notations for the past month i have had some incite into why this is used as a popular medium for designers and creative practitioners.
This medium makes it extremely easy to share your feelings, thoughts, experiences, methods of work, processes of development and final creations of creative work.
The key features i found that make a successful blog are;

- simplistic design - 
using a plain or lightly detailed background image , utilising a contrasting colour for the text to make it easily legible. keeping to the left or center of the screen to keep reading natural and easy for the viewer. don't over fill the page with junk, add-ons, gadgets or advertisements as this can put the reader off looking around the blog and can take the attention away from your posts.


- explain -
explaining what you have done to create your work is majorly  important to the reader as it gives them some incite into how the product was created and how they could replicate the effects you created in your work. 


- size matters - 
keeping the text at a large enough size so that all viewers can read the posts even those that are hard of sight, this is the same with images , don't allow the detail of the work go unnoticed or the purpose of the blog is then nullified.

so overall blogging is a very useful tool to the creative practitioner and allows them to exhibit their work on a global scale from any web enabled device and allows them to give and receive feedback on their own and others creations which could allow them to evolve their work to greater extents.

Festival of Britain

Festival of Britain logo, created by Abram Games

The festival of Britain was created as a celebration of new British design in the 1850's as a source of hope for the people of Britain who had suffered in the war. It consisted of interior design for homes and  new structural design for the revitalization of Britain. Although the festival was heavily based in London, there was a traveling festival that ventured around britain to showcase the designs of the future.
The designs shown in the festival were heavily based on futuristic and scientific themes (linking with the moon landing and the new scientific breakthroughs of the time), with a lot of designs being based on the atom, particles and orbitals.
The festival was a very successful event but everything that was exhibited at the festival was far to expensive for the average home owner, this meant that the festival was more of a preface of the designs that would be available to the future household of Britain rather than a showcase of goods for the people of the time.

Poster by Phlegm

This is a poster created by phlegm for the band LOW as a promotional poster for some gigs they did in the UK between 15th - 23rd of November. I found this image baffling at first as i just thought it was a random creation of phlegm but after reading into the post i noticed the lettering in the middle boxes to be and L an O and a W . The way that phlegm has done the typography is rather unique as he hasn't stuck to one font style for the lettering of the band name , from experience this usually doesn't work out too well but the way that he has incorporated it into this poster has worked well and really make u stop and look into the image.

Phlegm Issue 10

Phlegm's 10th issue of his magazine, featuring images that he has sprayed on the walls of Sheffield. The way that phlegm has designed the cover for this magazine gives it a very rustic, rural and even slightly tribal feel , which is a god contrast to the city life in Sheffield center. i like phlegm's images for this magazine because of their strange and intricate designs, they make me wonder what he is thinking of in his spare time to come up with these images, also the fact that he designs , prints and sells these magazines all by himself.

Google Reader

Google reader allows you to view all the posts the blogs you are following that have recently posted, all on one page, this saves time from looking at each individual blog page by page as it comes up with a number next to the blogs page title to tell you how many posts they have done since you last looked at their page.

Blogs i am following ...

Bad_Koala's Cave

Bad Koala is a principle artist at Bioware Montreal (games creation company creating games such as mass effect, dragon age and warhammer online), currently working on the Mass Effect Trilogy.
Bad Koala's blog is a very simplistic design, sticking to a gray scale template with white text, this makes the text easily visible and easy on the eyes to read. He uses his blog purely as a portfolio for his work and its development and so there is not much as far as discussion or explanation goes, he tends to post a  small comment to briefly give an idea of what the image was created for. he also posts his images in a large format , this makes the images easily viewable from the home page of the blog and this means that viewers don't have the need to enlarge the image to get a good detailed look at it.
This blog is a good example of a professionals portfolio and is still tailored to the individuals style of work.

Perpetual Motion

Perpetual Motion is the blog of Ben Mauro, a concept artist who has been published by Imagine FX (a computer arts magazine), Balistic (a digital art book producer) and design studio press (a specialty publisher that focuses primarily on original artistic works and educational books).
Ben's blog is a very stylistic blog that looks very futuristic and mechanical, this is a feature also present in his works posted on the blog and seems to be the key theme he works on. he has utilised a very simplistic colour scheme of whit with light gray text , although this goes will with the visual style of the blog it could be an issue with readers who are hard of sight as the gray text could be hard to see on the light background. the text posted on this blog is a lot more personal to the creator, explaining his feeling of when he created the imagery and what he remembers from the time of creation and also a small explanation of the image and what it is depicting.

Phlegm

Phlegm is a graffiti artist, print maker, and illustrator from Sheffield.
This blog is used as a showcase for phlegm's personal works, of all different kinds, and as an updating tool for his followers to stay up to date with the work he is producing and the comic that he sells.
this blog is again of a very simplistic design, he utilities a plain white background with contrasting black text , which again makes the text on the blog easily visible and readable. he has created a logo for his artist name and has placed it as the header for his blog , this allows his followers to recognize him , from his comics etc., and if now a sort of logo for his work.
phlegm tends to leave a good detailed description of how he has achieved the results of his work and gives exact details of the materials, media, techniques and tools used to create his work, this is a very useful way to explain the image as it allows people wishing to follow his style to know exactly what he is doing and how he is doing it.

Plant Monster Art

Plant Monster AKA Chris Park is an illustrator from Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA.
His blog is rather multicoloured in theme but this reflects the use of colour in his work and rather suits his style , also this doesn't affect the visual impact of the blog or the reader as the text is still clear and easily legible. he posts images of his personal work in large format but not with much explanation explanation or annotation, instead he may put a sentence stating what the image was used for (exhibition , product etc.). he has also utilised an image header liek phlegm but his is simply an image of one of his works. this image is does show the viewer what to expect from this blog but it takes up a large portion of the top of the page, this can take up the whole screen on smaller monitors and seems too big for its purpose.
This blog is extremely visually interesting and apart from the use of the image header is a well layed out and styled blog.

Sketchbook of Dshong

 Sketchbook of dishong is the blog of David Hong who is an art director from Temecula, California, USA.
Davids blog is again a very simplistic blog that uses a grayscale theme (darker for the background and lighter for the text), this makes the text stand out and easy to read. He posts mainly landscape scenes of a futuristic / alternative world, these are posted in a medium size format and which can make the detail of the images hard to see ( this is especially disappointing when they are such vivid and interesting imagery), but these images can be enlarged when clicked. there is no annotation to these images and with most of them there is no title, this means there is no text to describe the uses, feelings or artists techniques used to create the images and that makes this blog more of an image reel. one thing that i did find good about this blog was the header image as it incorporates the work of the artist , with the title of the blog and it is not too large like the previous blog so the reader can still see the start of the blog no matter what the screen size.