Sunday, September 26, 2010
When life gives you lemons...
Make something out of them. I may not be able to afford Photoshop, or any other name brand software, but Paint.Net is similar enough to work on most things. For being a free program, it has a ton of tools to work with, as well as having the ability to work in layers. I downloaded it for that reason alone. It's a lot of fun to use, but I still hope to be able to afford Adobe Photoshop soon. Photoshop has probably double the tools, and many of them are for professional grade editing and design.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Game Design
I've been looking at a lot of different types of design, from advertising to movies, but one area that always interests me is gaming. It's what I grew up on, it's what I've loved, and there's a lot to it. Looking at a fairly old game (by industry standards), Half Life 2, I've noticed some major differences between it and other, similar, First Person Shooters.
For starters, it has few cut-scenes. This gives a very uniform pacing, where you are always moving forward with just a few in game pauses in the action. The only two stopping points where you are completely unable to interact with the game at all are the beginning and the end. The advantage of this is that it gives a smooth pace of action where you don't want to put the controller down. The downside is that it makes the game feel less dramatic on a whole, since the two actual cut-scenes are done with in-game effects.
To counteract this blah-ness, they made all major characters much more detailed than the environment. Also, all major points in the game force you to be in a limited area. For the people who would rather skip ahead to the action, they put many interesting objects to look at and interact with in the meantime. This is much like playing minesweeper while a video loads.
One of the big features of Half-Life 2 is the physics engine. All objects have mass in the game, and velocity during interaction. Mass * Velocity = Force. Force, in this game, equals damage. The game is fairly, and I use that term lightly here, realistic in how these objects react with everything around them. But still, for the beginning of the game, the reality of the physics system is apparent, but not really something important.
Then you get the Gravity Gun, or Zero-Point Energy Manipulator, which allows you to use the laws of physics as a weapon. You will find yourself spending hours picking up and throwing anything you can get your hands on, from trashcans to cement blocks. Everything becomes a weapon. This feature alone makes the game fun for hours.
The bad parts of the games design are really its lack of variety. Every brick, every saw blade, every face that isn't a main character looks exactly like every other one. Cars come in different colors, but not styles. It really dims down what is a fun game. Another game by valve, Left for Dead, takes variety and puts sprinkles on it, just for taste. Then again, with such an intense game as Half-Life, a lot of variety would make the game laggy and slow.
I look forward to the sequels (especially launching more things).
For starters, it has few cut-scenes. This gives a very uniform pacing, where you are always moving forward with just a few in game pauses in the action. The only two stopping points where you are completely unable to interact with the game at all are the beginning and the end. The advantage of this is that it gives a smooth pace of action where you don't want to put the controller down. The downside is that it makes the game feel less dramatic on a whole, since the two actual cut-scenes are done with in-game effects.
To counteract this blah-ness, they made all major characters much more detailed than the environment. Also, all major points in the game force you to be in a limited area. For the people who would rather skip ahead to the action, they put many interesting objects to look at and interact with in the meantime. This is much like playing minesweeper while a video loads.
One of the big features of Half-Life 2 is the physics engine. All objects have mass in the game, and velocity during interaction. Mass * Velocity = Force. Force, in this game, equals damage. The game is fairly, and I use that term lightly here, realistic in how these objects react with everything around them. But still, for the beginning of the game, the reality of the physics system is apparent, but not really something important.
Then you get the Gravity Gun, or Zero-Point Energy Manipulator, which allows you to use the laws of physics as a weapon. You will find yourself spending hours picking up and throwing anything you can get your hands on, from trashcans to cement blocks. Everything becomes a weapon. This feature alone makes the game fun for hours.
The bad parts of the games design are really its lack of variety. Every brick, every saw blade, every face that isn't a main character looks exactly like every other one. Cars come in different colors, but not styles. It really dims down what is a fun game. Another game by valve, Left for Dead, takes variety and puts sprinkles on it, just for taste. Then again, with such an intense game as Half-Life, a lot of variety would make the game laggy and slow.
I look forward to the sequels (especially launching more things).
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wikis and Podcasts
Two terms that I had heard, but never thought about. To me, wikis have included Wikipedia and Wikipedia alone. It was for finding a basis at what you were looking for and finding references. Lately, I have looked at other wikis and thought of them as just a part of Wikipedia. I have been wrong.
First off, wikis are online databases with info edited by users or members, depending on the wiki. Wikipedia is written by anyone, so its credibility is rather low (despite the fact that factual information is often correct.) I find it's great for getting a good idea of what you're looking at. While that sharing of information is great, it opens up for abuse, such as deliberately providing false or slanderous information.
Second, Wikipedia is simply a very large wiki, and one of the first. However, companies are starting to use it as a way of sharing information with each other, and with clients. They also use them for idea generating and editing ideas or projects. Also, gaming wikis are becoming popular, allowing easy access to any information that can be found about a particular game, including information given out only in published resources.
Podcasts are something else entirely to me. I had no interest in them, and thought of them as a way for silly people to talk about how drunk they got last night, or to show off what stupid thing they did the night before. I am embarrassed to say how wrong I am.
Podcasts are now an important part of businesses and design as they reach a broad audience. Teachers can use it to share lecturers, which is especially handy for anyone who has to miss a day. They promote products, and a single podcast can reach more people than can fit into the average lecture hall. Literally, you can have a million people learn about something you have posted. That kind of reach was impossible to achieve before as cheaply and effectively as a podcast can now.
To think such simple concepts were beyond my understanding a few minutes ago.
First off, wikis are online databases with info edited by users or members, depending on the wiki. Wikipedia is written by anyone, so its credibility is rather low (despite the fact that factual information is often correct.) I find it's great for getting a good idea of what you're looking at. While that sharing of information is great, it opens up for abuse, such as deliberately providing false or slanderous information.
Second, Wikipedia is simply a very large wiki, and one of the first. However, companies are starting to use it as a way of sharing information with each other, and with clients. They also use them for idea generating and editing ideas or projects. Also, gaming wikis are becoming popular, allowing easy access to any information that can be found about a particular game, including information given out only in published resources.
Podcasts are something else entirely to me. I had no interest in them, and thought of them as a way for silly people to talk about how drunk they got last night, or to show off what stupid thing they did the night before. I am embarrassed to say how wrong I am.
Podcasts are now an important part of businesses and design as they reach a broad audience. Teachers can use it to share lecturers, which is especially handy for anyone who has to miss a day. They promote products, and a single podcast can reach more people than can fit into the average lecture hall. Literally, you can have a million people learn about something you have posted. That kind of reach was impossible to achieve before as cheaply and effectively as a podcast can now.
To think such simple concepts were beyond my understanding a few minutes ago.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Limitations
So far things are going good in class. I'm learning photoshop pretty well, making friends, and discovering a lot of techniques. What I really want to learn is how to create images instead of editing them. I have so many ideas in my head that I can't get out (except through writing) when I really want to show people what it is I see. Unfortunately my talent for hand drawn art is extremely limited (just like my talent at hand writing). I'm sure we'll get to that though. Looking forward to it.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Design: Why I'm Interest in Becoming a Graphic Designer
Everyone has felt that, at some point in their life, they aren't doing what they feel they should. For me, that was the first 18 years of my life. I did poorly in high school, wasted a year after, and was headed no where. My last year of high school, I discovered something I loved. The moment I stepped into our Career Center's AutoCAD class, things felt different.
For starters, the teacher told us how to do things and, rather than spending a few days in review, expected us to do it. We were to learn by doing, not by tests and reviews. I excelled in that class. I began messing around with a 3D animation program (packaged with AutoCAD) and asked the teacher about it. He knew nothing about it, so I started teaching myself.
After graduation (which I barely did) I wasted a year. My grandma was dating and brought a man with her on her yearly visit to Michigan. He was impressed by my intelligence, saw me wasting my talents, and decided to pay for my college. And here I am. Auto CAD introduced me to digital creativity, and I decided my direction from there.
I will continue my education, working back to 3D animation after graduating in Design and Multimedia.
For starters, the teacher told us how to do things and, rather than spending a few days in review, expected us to do it. We were to learn by doing, not by tests and reviews. I excelled in that class. I began messing around with a 3D animation program (packaged with AutoCAD) and asked the teacher about it. He knew nothing about it, so I started teaching myself.
After graduation (which I barely did) I wasted a year. My grandma was dating and brought a man with her on her yearly visit to Michigan. He was impressed by my intelligence, saw me wasting my talents, and decided to pay for my college. And here I am. Auto CAD introduced me to digital creativity, and I decided my direction from there.
I will continue my education, working back to 3D animation after graduating in Design and Multimedia.
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