Portfolios...

My original layout for my portfolio front cover. Its pretty funky, but not really doing the job.My new and improved front cover! It looks much more swish!!


The talk we had today was extremely useful, I can't believe how lame my presentations skills were before.

Colour Theory...

Today we went out with water colours again. I went to the cathedral and looked at the gravestones. The first painting i did ended up looking fairly similar , colour wise, to the painting i did at abby park last week. It was a different day, different weather, different place, different subject. But, my images still looked the same, which suggests I'm doing something wrong.

Looking at the same gravestones again, I painted thinking more about the colour that was in front of me, and not just what was easily available in my colour palette. Its not amazing, but at least its getting better, The colours used are much more harmonious than those used in the first painting.

Dominance War concepts...

Here are the two different concepts I came up with for the Dominance War.

The first is a Harpy with the magical element of Vegetation.
The second is a small girl with a giraffe!
I am going with the second idea, more will be revealed, but not quite yet...

Another wasted day...

Another day of not being able to do any queens building work because of situations out of my control. Tomorrow I am determined to post some mind blowing somethings on the teams blog.

Here is the most successful painting i produced at abby park today, I really enjoyed it. I would like to spend allot more time painting a bit a bit less time doing 3D work atm, at least we have the day project tomorrow, they are always exciting.

Here a couple of paintings I did to remember how to use watercolours before today. They arn't fantastic, and the question of boring subject matter comes into play. But, I've been spending more time learning techniques at home, then applying them to more interesting subjects when I go on adventures. Hopefully there will be plenty more adventures in the future.

Its time for some meta-ethics....

Meta-ethics: involves the understanding of language and terminology within ethics. How words like good, bad, right and wrong are used in an ethical sense. The field of meta-ethics is divided into four main theories, these are, Intuitionism, Emotivism, Absolutism and Relativism.

That was lifted straight out of an essay I wrote roughly 3 years ago. This applies to the topic of 'Goodness makes it good, Badness makes it bad' because the same theories can be applied to 'Goodness' in an artistic and technical sense as in an ethical one. I'm going to write the theories directed particularly towards art for obvious reasons.

I touched on some of this stuff in one of my first year blogs, so it may sound familiar.

Intuitionism is the theory that understanding of the terminology is known intuitively. G E Moore argued that the word 'good' can be defined no better than the colour 'yellow'. We cannot define a colour, but we are able to identify yellow tings, and we know what yellow is. In they same way we know what 'good' is.

Applying this more to art, sometimes our response to art work is very instinctive. When looking at perspective, we can almost instantly say that something is wrong, even if we aren't to sure why. But then again, just because it is wrong, that doesn't necessarily make it bad.

Perspective is a technical thing though, it is either right or wrong, even though this doesn't always determine whether it is good or bad. Technical issues are often more clear cut.

Artistically, the work doesn't always have to be technically correct to be artistically good. It does take very clever artists to use this to its fullest potential.

Escher - Ascending It should be obvious that there is a flaw in the perspective of this image. But, this is what makes Escher's work so 'good'. The wrongness makes it good, he does it wrong so well.

Emotivism is based on the idea that anything beyond the sense-realm of verification was not valid and is therefore meaningless. The realm of art could be considered to be outside of science, therefore meaningless too.

Another way of explaining Emotivism is that only Objective statements are truly valid as they are based on fact, any subjective statements have no meaning.

This would not always apply to the technical side of art. As it can be stated objectively whether a piece of art work is technically wright or wrong. But, artistically things can only be judged subjectively. So, no matter how many reasons are given for the 'goodness' of the art work, it is still just a matter of opinion.

Salvador Dali - Swans Reflecting Elephants You could point out all of the technical flaws within this image. But personally I cannot deny the 'goodness' of it.

Absolutism is based on the idea that 'goodness' is objective. Something is either good or it is bad. There is no in between, it is completely clear cut.

Once again, technically, this is true. Something is either wright or it is wrong, as illustrated to the left.

But, can it be true artistically? If it is true then surely no one has ever produced a good piece of work. There will always be a flaw somewhere.

It is my personal opinion though, that the imperfectness of something can make it perfect.

Opposed to Absolutism is Relativism. Each persons view is relative to there own perspective. While i see value in all the other theories, this is the one i like the most. I'm a strong believer int the statement that' Everyone is different'. Stereotypes and the like really frustrate me. There are millions of factors that could effect your opinion of a piece of art. Which would make the judgment entirely subjective.

Personal experience and tastes, society and culture, all things which can effect your opinion.

Final Fantasy IX
I loved this, the art style rocked. But some of you hated it! didn't you!?

So, studying meta-ethics has helped me out allot in this one. All the theories do seem to apply in one way or another.

I think its for certain that you can't get away with much 'technically'. Its either wright or wrong. If you make it wrong on purpose, it should be for a good purpose and benefit the work 'artistically'.

But, 'Artistically' is the hard one, and I will have to look into in more. But I think its a given that 'goodness' can only come from hard work and an extreme amount of effort.

You get what you deserve?...(a blog of epic proportions)

The time has come for me to bring a bit more philosophy into this terms topic. So it begins with 'deserving'.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Desert:

'The concept of desert is deeply entrenched in everyday morality. We say that effort deserves success, wrongdoing deserves punishment, innocent suffering deserves sympathy or compensation, virtue deserves happiness, and so on. We think that the getting of what's deserved is just, and that failure to receive what's deserved is unjust. We also believe it's good that a person gets what she deserves, and bad that she doesn't — even if she deserves something bad, like punishment. We assume, too, that it's wrong to treat people better or worse than they deserve, and right to treat them according to their deserts. In these and other ways, the notion of desert pervades our ethical lives.'

This ties in very strongly with both of this terms topics, 'Grading' and 'Goodness and Badness'. It is important for us to understand what it means to deserve something, there is a very simple equation for desert, it goes like this...

Thing A deserves X in virtue of Y

A = deserving subject
B = deserved object
C = desert basis

you could also add a source into the equation if applicable: 'from Z'

Z = source from which the subject deserves the object.

I think it is important to look deeply into this. Our class is very quick to question the grades they receive, and that others receive. They are also very quick to defend there work, sometimes for legitimate reasons, and sometimes not (in my opinion).

Desert can be a very subjective topic, as we already know from experience. If it was so clear cut, we wouldn't have these squabbles over grading.

Its also important to note, that peoples perceptions of reality are very different. I often find that allot of people are blind to there own ability and that of others, whether good or bad. They are also blind to effort. I hope I am not.

To analyze our situation more. I will put us into the equation. A = deserving subject = us.
When I say 'us' I mean each of us on the course.

So what is it exactly that is the deserved object, it could be grades, a job, recognition, self-gratification. I guess it is dependent on the individual. I'm not sure what the personal goals are for each person on the course, but I know my own.

The main goal in my life, and I would think in allot of peoples lives is Happiness. So I suppose my aim is to deserve Happiness then maybe i will receive happiness. But, it is often said you don't always get what you deserve. I can damn well try though.

I would say that all of the above, good grades, a job, recognition and self-gratification were all my own desires. I think the main one there is self-gratification though. To achieve good grades, a job and recognition I think would give me self-gratification.

Recognition is the hard one, but i think it very necessary, though many would say it isn't. It's hard to achieve recognition in a room full of blind people.

So now, what is the basis for deserving these things. Deserving good grades could be based on fulfilling all of the grading criteria. But, we find so often on this course that the grading criteria are extremely vague.

In Senior school we were given two grades for a piece of work, a letter for overall quality, and a number for effort. I always thought this quite bizarre. What if you were graded a C1. That would mean your overall work quailty was a C, average. But you put in your maximum effort apparently... so you can never do better than average i guess.... hmmmmmmmmm, what crap.

I find it really impossible to fathom how we will be graded this term. I'd really like it if someone external came in, like Jolyon from Blitz, and ripped peoples work to pieces. Maybe this would be more helpful a while before we get graded, just to whip people into shape.

Adolphe William Bouguereau - Dante And Virgil In Hell (1850)
My opinion - Goodness makes this good, one of my favorite artists for years!

I do think we should have someone external attend when we are graded though. I think the judgment of our work is far to narrow. I often see abysmal work, but the creator believes it is fine as they have been told so by some 'authority figure'. I also wonder at whether people trust my opinion too. I get the impression that so many people still do not know what is good or bad. So they praise work when they don't really have the knowledge to do so.

I don't think I'm amazing either, I know from research that I have a long way to go before reaching industry standards. But, I do feel I have a fairly good perception of good and bad, especially when judging my own work. Maybe you don't think this, I don't know.

I also find it annoying when people judge work before really analyzing what they see, anyway, I'm getting off topic a little bit.

How to grade our work? I do not know! All i can do is try and hope it gets noticed in the end.

Which ties in nicely with recognition. I think this is so important, its obvious people desire to be recognized, or they wouldn't argue so much at grading time. They want Justice! but, do they know what true justice would be? I doubt it. People have so really warped views when it comes to there own work. I think that is true for everyone.

It works two ways, the people who believe they are deserving, and argue for it, when maybe they aren't as deserving as they believe themselves to be. Also, the people who talk themselves down, who think they deserve less than they actually achieved.

I think I could spend days talking over this topic, but you get the idea...

Anyway, deserving a job. Here you would have to be desired by the company you have applied for. To be deserving of that job, you would have to produce an amazing portfolio, and rock at your interview. I would hope that if you aim to achieve a job, and do all you need to get there, that your grades will follow on nicely.

To be truly deserving of this, I think you need to work your ass off. It doesn't matter how good you r perception of yourself is. You won't be able to argue about the amount of effort you put in, or try to justify your work and prove its 'goodness'. If they don't like it, you haven't worked hard enough to deserve your job yet.

Deserving self-gratification. A very hard one, I'm barely ever satisfied with anything I do. It usually seems like settling more than completing. I don't think this is a bad thing, Its just a hard thing to live with sometimes.

I get that nice feeling when I've worked really hard at something, and then someone says 'hey, thats really nice'. Getting given good grades also gives me that feeling.

I also get that pissy feeling when you think your doing really well and no one notices. Or when someone else is being praised when you think they don't 'deserve' it and you think you do. Thats a rubbish feeling, and a stupid one.

Theres also that feeling you get when you look at your work and think its really crap, and then look at the person next to you, and their work rocks, thats lame. But, helpful. If you use that feeling properly, you will be inspired to do better.

For me i guess the feeling of self-gratification is dependent far too much on the people around me. Maybe i should start dishing out more praise, and help other people achieve that feeling. I would recommend, if you think someones work is good, just tell them. It annoys me when people just dish out criticism to make themselves feel like they are better.

Allot of things annoy me.

I wonder how much I've contradicted myself in one Blog post.

Now its time for Z! the source of the object that is deserved. The course leaders? the employer? the classmates? yourself?

To save me analyzing each one, I will just tell you the obvious. Only you can really be the source of what is deserved. It's true the world is unjust to the extreme. But kicking back won't get you anywhere. So, if your a lazy b*stard don't expect my support when we give our presentations, at the moment I feel all to happy to point out your flaws. In contrast, if your put your all into what your doing, I will back you up all the way. It would be a sin if some deserving folks should slip through the net.

Funness makes it Good...

If its fun, its just better. It feels better and looks better.

If you don't like what your doing, in might be a good idea to quit it.

What I've been doing...

I realized I never posted up my finished self portrait onto my Blog! so here it is...


A good time to say, I don't think presentations are the right way to go about grading someones work. They are good for showing final work, but not to be graded. You can't really SEE what someone has done when they show their 3D models as a 2D screen grab.

You can easily cheat your work into looking good this way.

I put allot of slides into my presentation that were purely about the process of creation. This is very important. Even though it is not what we were asked to show. I found it strange that the whole term we were told that is all about process and a number of iterations to show improvement, its all about what you have learnt in the time period and how much you have improved. Yet, our final grades were being determined by one model one a 2D slide being flashed past peoples eyes.

I didn't want the effort I'd put in to be ignored, so i went against the rules and included all my process work.

I also found it strange how people were praised for going 'beyond the brief' when is was apparent that they hadn't fulfilled the actual brief to there full potential. This was obvious to me, as I'm around the class allot of the time. Though its true that I don't see all of the classes progress.

Talking of the class, the day projects are fantastic. They are great for speeding up your modeling. Last week I made the Wrong Trousers. I'm not at all happy with them, the proportions just look wrong. So, I'm throwing them out to be forgotten. Badness makes this Bad.

This week I made a Korok from Windwaker. This was really fun! I'm pleased with the way it has turned out. I'm going to hopefully put it into unreal before next week and cell shade it up! I also make the other 6 koroks, and I'm in the process of texturing them atm. That must be put aside for the moment while I continue with the Queens building project.


Talking of the Queens Building project, I don't like it. I haven't worked in industry, so I can't say for sure, But, I'm thinking that this isn't much like it. I'm hoping that in industry you would be working with people you could trust to do there jobs correctly. They were hired after all, so they can't be too bad. I also think you would be working very closely together, everyday, which would help out a great deal. You would have one network to keep all of you work compiled.

Another thing I don't like is that I seem to have put learning aside for this project. I'm a weak 2D artist, and I'm not getting the time I need to work on my 2D. Its keeps being said that its more important to have artistic ability than technical skill. I can pick up technical things fairly quickly, and it bothers me that I'm spending allot of my time at uni not learning what I need.

It would be nice if this project wasn't such a focal point of the term. My modeling speed is increasing, but at a great cost. I almost feel like not doing the same quantity of work for the project so I can do my own work. But I can't do that, as its just not me.

This Terms Blog task...

I've been asked a few times what the Blog task is for this term, so I am doing a quick write up of it so you know what to Blog about!

The first thing is GRADING. What you think about the grading system, and how you think we should be graded.

The second thing is GOOD and BAD. Quoting Jolyon 'Goodness makes it Good, Badness makes it Bad'. Think about what makes things good and what makes things bad, analyze some work for yourself. Identifying what is good and what is bad will help you to make good choices when producing your own work in future.

Archaeoptrix

This is my model of an Archaeoptrix........



It was really fun to make, i like the feet best.

I spent yesterday constructing the walkway, I'm going to work on another section of it today. I assigned this weeks modeling tasks to all members of the group, except if they hadn't finished the previous weeks tasks. I'm falling behind with 2D work though. The role of 3D lead is taking up quite a bit of time, which is a bit annoying as its the 2D that I need to work on most. I will have to spend allot of time over summer working on my 2D.

I better start writing about stuff wot I dun.

I assigned a set of test assets to determine the abilities of my group, not everyone has completed the task. I will not set anyone further assets until that have completed that one task sufficiently. This is helping me learn to criticize. I'm glad we did it before we started creating assets that were going to be used in the level. It made me realize that I do know a fair bit about this, and i think my group trust me to make good judgments, even if they do come off as a bit harsh sometimes. I hope they trust me anyway.

Ive learnt allot about Unreal ed, i can block out, though its not my assigned job so I'm not gonna, but i could. I can use basic matinee to create lifts. I can create materials, just just diff, norm, spec, but with fancy stuff too, i made a moving electricity material. That material taught me enough to feel confident in making any other material. Once you know the tools, you can use them to do pretty much whatever you want.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time in the Queens building. I redesigned the walkway so its efficient for modeling but still looks funky, i will have to draw up some proper concepts/modeling ref before Monday as I have assigned to walkway task to myself.

I've made a list of all the Architectural prefabs and grouped them into bundles that can have the same texture page for efficiency. Ive sort of worked out who will do what task, but until Friday when I check to see if the last test assets have been completed I can't finalize my decision.

I've also made a list of all the cosmetic prefabs, but haven't organized them quite so well yet, they will be being modeled later.

Allot of thinking has been taking place these past few weeks, which is hard to quantify or present.

I wrote a good portion of the Tech Spec too, me and ash split it between us. I wrote up Guidelines, Naming conventions, Filing Structure, Asset Form, Export, Triangle counts, Texture Sizes, UV and Texturing Guidelines and the Asset Completion Checklist.

I also planned out the way in which we will be tackling the modeling for the duration of the project, which Sophia will use to compile the more in depth Schedule, and I'll help if she wants!

Tuesdays lesson was awesome, I will finish my work off at the weekend ready to show next Tuesday. It was a fantastic assignment.